


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

D09117Q1HA 



THE KINGSLEY ENGLI EXTS 



EVANGELINE 

LONQFIXLOW 



The 

Palmer 

Company 



tCtic Hingslcp (Enaltsl) ?EtxW 



LONGFELLOW'S 

EVANGELINE 



EDITED, WITH NOTES, OUTLINE STUDY AND 
EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 

BY 

MAUD ELMA KINGSLEY, A.B., A.M. 

AND 

FRANK HERBERT PALMAR, A.B., A.M. 



BOSTON, U. S.A. 
THE PALMER COMPANY 

120 Boylston Street 
1909 



Copyright, iq. 



The Palmer Company 



^"^ i> O ■■'■ R 1 S> y 

Cla.A, A ^^ 

JUL 26 1909 

i- imn 



o 



CONTENTS 



Preface ...... 

Introduction ..... 

Part I 

Canto I. Acadie, Home of the Happy 
Canto II. The Royal Summons 
Canto III. The Ceremony of Betrothal 
Canto IV. The Betrothal Feast 
Canto V. At the Gaspereau's Mouth 

Part II. . . . 

Canto I. Evangeline's Quest 
Canto II. Down the Mississippi 
Canto III. Basil the Herdsman 
Canto IV. The Indian Woman 
Canto V. The Finding of Gabriel 

Outline Study of Evangeline 

Examination Questions . . : . 



PAGE 

v 

vii 
i 
3 
15 
2 5 
34 
45 
56 
56 
63 
76 

9 1 
105 

3 
24 



PREFACE 



The right or the wrong of the expulsion of the French 
settlers from Acadia, which event forms the historical 
groundwork of the poem Evangeline, has long been 
a matter of dispute. The conclusion reached by the 
individual student is quite likely to be influenced either 
by sentiment or by national prejudice. The poet has, 
of course, found it necessary to stir the reader's senti- 
ments of sympathy and pity for the people who were 
so rudely separated by the exigencies of war from their 
possessions and from their friends and relatives. But 
it should be remembered that Longfellow was painting 
a picture, not giving a judicial opinion ; therefore 
personal experiences rather than political or ethical 
questions fell within the scope of his purpose. The 
editors have presented in the Introduction what may be 
called a moderate view of the point at issue, which is 
believed to be fair to both the English and the French, 
and also in harmony with the historical facts. 

In the Kingsley English Texts of Shakespeare's 



vi PREFACE 

Plays already published the " Scene-Settings" have been 
made a prominent and helpful feature. Of somewhat 
similar purport are the "Introductory Notes" before 
each Canto of Evangeline. These, with the judicious 
footnotes and the Outline Study and Examination Ques- 
tions, are original features, which are believed sufficient 
to justify this new edition of a poem which is probably 
more widely used in the schools and more dearly loved 
than any other piece of literature. 

The Editors. 
Boston, Mass., August i, 1909. 



INTRODUCTION 



i. Character of Evangeline 

It is a fortunate circumstance for the literature of any country 
when a great poet embodies in imperishable verse a legend con- 
nected with its history, softening with the mist of romance the out- 
lines of life and character which appear so harsh and forbidding 
in the light furnished by the prose historian. 

This poetic enlargement of the romantic in history is especially 
grateful in America, where a transplanted race, confronted with 
tremendous material problems and tasks, is inclined to despise the 
power of imagination and seems likely to lose that sense of the ideal, 
which, in lands where civilization has sprung from the soil, is the 
inspiration of literature and art. 

Of the many attempts at poetic treatment of American legends, 
Longfellow's Evangeline is, from every point of view, the most 
successful. It is the poem by which its author is best known outside 
of his own country, and it has added an American province to the 
world of legendary romance. The charm which makes the poem so 
widely popular lies in its simplicity. It is a story of universal 
human interest, told plainly and unaffectedly, — a story of simple- 
minded peasants, involved, through no volition of their own, in cir- 
cumstances intensely dramatic. Local associations and historical 



viii INTRODUCTION 

facts are used merely as accessories to this human story, following 
the example of the old popular ballads in which everything is sub- 
ordinated to the personality of those whose adventures are the theme 
of the song. 

2. Historical Found atiox of Evangeline 
(To be used in connection ivith Outline Study, Note 2.) 

Acadia (French, VAcadie, from an Indian word d-ka-de, 
meaning " plenty ") was the name given by the French explorers to 
a region which had Fundy Bay for its center and which included 
for purposes of actual occupation and settlement, the present Cana- 
dian provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and the eastern 
half of the state of Maine. 

This region was claimed by England by right of discovery ; but 
its first actual explorers were French adventurers, drawn thither by 
rumors of gold mines and induced to remain by the more substantial 
attractions of the fur trade. In the early years of the seventeenth 
century, about the time when the English were beginning to form 
permanent settlements on the coast of New England, a few French 
families, mostly peasants from Normandy, were brought over and 
established at Port Royal, now Annapolis, on the south shore of 
Fundy Bay. These settlers found the country, notwithstanding its 
rocky soil and rigorous winter climate, capable of furnishing an 
industrious population with plentiful subsistence. Hostilities with 
their New England neighbors disturbed them somewhat until 1667, 
when the French acquired undisputed possession of the country, by 
the Treaty of Breda, after -which they increased and multiplied, 
forming settlements at various points on both sides of the bay. 



INTRODUCTION ix 

Directed by wise and devoted priests to whom they were thoroughly 
submissive, the Acadians, like the Arcadians of pastoral romance, 
formed idyllic communities from which poverty, wealth, crime and 
ambition were practically banished. The surrounding Indians 
learned to love and admire the French as heartily as the New 
England Indians hated their Puritan neighbors, and their descend- 
ants are Frenchmen and Roman Catholics to this day. 

The peaceful prosperity of the Acadians was roughly broken, 
when the capture of Port Royal by the British in 1710 was followed by 
cession of the whole country to Great Britain at the Peace of Utrecht. 
The Acadians were guaranteed the enjoyment of their religion and 
language, and, -on their part, agreed not to assist the enemies of 
Great Britain ; but the struggle for the domination of North America 
between the British and the French of Canada was coming on, and 
the British wished to establish in Acadia, which they called Nova 
Scotia, a strong outpost against the French who were strongly forti- 
fied in the Island of Cape Breton. The Acadians differed from the 
Canadian French in many respects, but were naturally attracted to 
the cause of men of their own race and religion ; therefore, they 
gradually drew away from Port Royal, now become a British strong- 
hold, and made Grand-Pre, on the south side of Minas Basin, the 
center of their settlements. This brought them into the most unfor- 
tunate position possible for neutrals, directly between the hostile 
lines. To the English it seemed that so long as the Acadians 
occupied the northern half of the peninsula, the English dominion 
was practically limited to the southern half, in defiance of the treaty 
which guaranteed to the English the whole peninsula. In the war 
known in America as King George's War, 1744-1748, several 
attempts were made by the Canadian French to conquer Nova Scotia. 



x JNTRODUCTION 

The responsible men of the Acadians claimed the privileges of 
neutrals, but they made no resistance when the French invaders 
helped themselves from Acadian barns and storehouses ; the Indians 
and half-breeds, known to be controlled wholly by the Acadian 
priests, openly joined with the French, and a detachment of New 
England soldiers was ambushed and slaughtered in the very village 
of Grand-Pre. After this the New Englanders demanded that the 
Acadians be compelled to take up arms in defence of Nova Scotia, 
or make room for those who would ; but the British Government, 
for reasons of its own, assented to a peace which left matters in this 
region in the same condition as before the war. 

In 1755 war again broke out and the Canadian French 
again appeared in Nova Scotia, relying on the friendly neutrality 
of the Acadians. This time Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, 
Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America, was 
authorized to adopt whatever policy seemed necessary for the pro- 
tection of New England. A British naval force, with a land army 
composed mainly of New England militia, under Major-General 
John Winslow, sailed to Fundy Bay and drove the Canadians back 
to Cape Breton. As soon as communication between the Acadians 
at Grand-Pre and the French at Louisburg was broken by the 
establishment of British garrisons on the Isthmus, the Acadians 
were ordered to assemble at Grand-Pre to hear the commands of the 
King of England as to their future conduct. Expecting nothing 
worse than reproof and warning, the leading men of the Acadians 
put themselves into the power of General Winslow on September 5, 
1755. They were curtly informed that they had abused his 
Majesty's clemency, that their property was confiscated, and that 
the entire population was to be transported to other British colonies 



INTRODUCTION xi 

where arrangements would be made for their settlement. No resist- 
ance was possible, and the proclamation was carried into effect 
immediately. 

This action, for the details of which Governor Lawrence, of 
Nova Scotia, and Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, must be 
held responsible, was justifiable as military necessity under the 
laws of war as practiced in the eighteenth century, and the transpor- 
tation of the Acadians to the colonies south of New England, where 
land was to be had for the asking, and where industrious settlers 
were always welcome, need not have caused excessive suffering. 
The heartless carelessness, however, with which the expatriation of 
these people was carried out classes the Expulsion of the Acadians 
with the Massacre of Glencoe, as a blot on the generally humane 
record of British military administration. The embarkation was 
hurried ; no attempt was made to unite families on the same ship or 
to see that the ships were properly provisioned or equipped. It 
would seem that no definite arrangement had been made as to the 
destination of the exiles, and that irresponsible masters of chartered 
transports went wherever they pleased to discharge their unwilling 
passengers. This conduct entailed hardships which would have 
exterminated a less hardy race. 

Of those Acadians who survived, some settled in English colo- 
nies and prospered, particularly in Pennsylvania ; others found their 
way to Canada, and many more to Louisiana, where their descend- 
ants still form a distinct element of the population. 



EVANGELINE 



Part the First 

This is the forest primeval. 1 The murmuring pines 
and the hemlocks, 

Bearded 2 with moss, and in garments green, indistinct 
in the twilight, 

Stand like Druids 3 of eld, with voices sad and pro- 
phetic, 

Stand like harpers hoar, 4 with beards that rest on 
their bosoms. 

Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neigh- 
boring ocean 

Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail 
of the forest 5 . 

This is the forest primeval ; but where are the hearts 
that beneath it 

1. Study Examination Questions, No. 2. 

2. What does the word bearded modify? 

3. The priests of the earliest religion of Western Europe whose 
temples were oak groves. Point out an archaic word in line 3. 

4. Harpers. The reference is to the hards of ancient Britain, con- 
ventionally represented as aged men with flowing gray hair and 
beards. 

5. What figure of speech, is nsed in lines 5 and 6 1 What 
effect is produced 1 

Suggestion.— What impression does line 6 produce upon the mind 
of the reader as regards the character of the story? What two words 
in the line deepen this impression? • 



2 EVANGELINE 

Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland 

the voice of the huntsman? 
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of 

Acadians farmers — , 10 

Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the 

woodlands, 
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an 

image of heaven? 6 
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers for- 
ever departed ! 
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty 

blasts of October 
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them 

far o'er the ocean. 
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village 

of Grand-Pre. 

Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, 

and is patient, 
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's 

devotion, 
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines 

of the forest ; 
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. 20 

6. Characterize the kind of existence described in this figure 
of speech. 



EVANGELINE 



Canto I. Acadie, Home of the Happy 

Introductory Note. In no way could the poet have more 
effectively aroused the reader's sympathy for the exiled Aca- 
dians, than by painting this picture of the simple, God-fearing 
Acadian farmers, dwelling together in love and contentment 
in their peaceful little village. 

In a vivid word picture, the village of Grand-lPre is brought 
before the reader, embosomed in its fruitful valley, its pale 
green marshes, reclaimed from the sea, stretching to the east- 
ward ; on the west and south, orchards and fields of flax and 
corn outstretch from either side as far as eye can see ; between 
them and beyond are the restless waters of the Minas Basin ; to 
the northward, dominating the whole scene, stands the " majes- 
tic bastion of Blomidon, outthrust against the tides;" and 
beyond, and still bejond, the primeval forest. 

The canto is not over-long, but no detail of the life of the 
Acadians is omitted; and we have, besides, a beautiful portrait 
of the Evangeline of "seventeen summers," inserted to mark 
more sharply the contrasts of the following cantos. In this 
canto, also, are introduced and characterized the chief actors in 
the story. 

In the Acadian land, 1 on the shores of the Basin of 

Minas, 2 
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre 3 
Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched 

to the eastward, 
Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks 

without number. 

1. Study Outline Study, A, III, and Introduction 2, para, 
graph 1. 

2. The eastern arm of Fundy Bay, penetrating 60 miles into the 
heart of the peninsula of Nova Scotia. It is noted for its remarkable 
rise and fall of tide, 50 feet or more. Probably greater than anywhere 
else in the world. 

3. A village in Kings county, Nova Scotia, situated on Minas Basin, 
46 miles northwest of Halifax. The name Grand-Pre means, when 
translated into English, " Great Meadow." 



4 EVANGELINE 

Dikes, 4 that the hands of the farmers had raised with 

labor incessant, 
Shut out the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the 

flood-gates 
Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er 

the meadows. 
West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards 

and corn-fields 
Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain ; and 

away to the northward 
Blomidon 5 rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the 

mountains 30 

Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the 

mighty Atlantic 
Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their 

station descended. 
There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian 

village. 

4. "It is not only in the embalming amber of song and story that the 
memory of the Acadians survives. A monument no less beautiful 
than beneficent is theirs in the wide, rich meadows which their 
hands snatched from the sea. These reaches of placid green, 
streaked with fleeing lines of shade as the gusts swoop down across 
the grass tops, were anciently but barren levels of red mud, patched 
irregularly, with yellow sea grass. At high tide they were one vast 
sea, whose waves lapped the edges of the uplands, which are 
now miles inland. Patiently the Acadians upbuilt the long ramparts 
of their dikes, the mighty tides were fenced into their channels, and 
soon the red flats put forth the green of their exhaustless fertility. 
But their bosom lies below sea-level; therefore, eternal vigilance is 
the price of this possession, and the diking spade is ceaselessly at 
work along the foundations of those ponderous walls." 

5. "Find Blomidon on your map. 



EVANGELINE 5 

Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak 

and of chestnut, 
Such as the peasants of Normandy 6 built in the reign 

of the Henries. 7 
Thatched were the roofs, 8 with dormer-windows ; and 

gables projecting 
Over the basement below protected and shaded the 

doorway. 
There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when 

brightly the sunset 
Lighted the village street, and gilded the vanes on the 

chimney, 
Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps 9 and in 

kirtles 10 40 

Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the 

golden 
Flax for the gossiping 11 looms, whose noisy shuttles 1 ' 2 

within doors 

6. See Introduction 2. paragraph 2. 

7. Explain. 

8. A thatched roof is a roof covered with straw. The straw is 
laid, upon the roof to the thickness of a foot or more and is held in 
place by cords or by long strips of wood loaded with stones. 

9. The cap of a peasant of Upper Normandy is made of starched 
muslin, and is from half a yard to a yard in height. It stands up nearly 
perpendicularly and is ornamented with long lace lappets. The hair 
is braided in front and gathered up in a mass behind. Upon a young 
and handsome woman, these high caps have a pretty effect. In 
Lower Normandy, the cap is low and flat in the crown. 

10. The rest of the peasant woman's dress consists of a bright colored 
petticoat, usually scarlet, a black jacket and a colored apron; long 
gold ear-rings, and gold hearts and crosses, fastened either to a black 
velvet ribbon or to a gold chain. 

11. What is the significance of the epithet? 

12. Define distaff, loom, and shnttle. 



6 EVANGELINE 

Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels and 

the songs of the maidens. 13 
Solemnly down the street came the parish priest, and 

the children 
Paused in their play to kiss the hand he extended to 

bless them. 
Reverend walked he among them ; and up rose ma- 
trons and maidens, 
Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate 

welcome. 
Then came the laborers home from the field, and 

serenely the sun sank 
Down to his rest, and twilight prevailed. 14 Anon 

from the belfry 
Softly the Angelus 13 sounded, and over the roofs of 

the village . 50 

Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense 

ascending, 
Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and 

contentment. 
Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian 

farmers — 



13. Show that the sound of this line suggests the noise of 
the looms. 

14. Enumerate all the details which enter into the compo- 
sition of the -word picture of lines 38-49. 

15. A Roman Catholic devotion the name of which is derived from 
the first words, Angelus Domini. The prayer is recited three times 
a day, generally about 6. A. m., at noon, and about 6 P. M., at the sound 
of a bell called the Angelus. 



EVANGELINE 7 

Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were 

they free from 
Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice 

of republics. 16 
Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to 

their windows ; 
But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts 

of the owners ; 
There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in 

abundance. 17 

Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the 

Basin of Minas, 
Benedict Belief ontaine, the wealthiest farmer of 

Grand-Pre, 60 

Dwelt on his goodly acres ; and with him, directing 

his household, 
Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of 

the village. 
Stalworth and stately in form was the man of seventy 

winters ; 
Hearty and hale was he, an oak that is covered with 

snow-flakes ; 
White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks 

as brown as the oak-leaves. 



16. In a state of society where legal equality prevails, an advan- 
tageous position obtained by superior talents or wealth is naturally 
envied by the less fortunate. 

17. Study Introduction 2, paragraph 2. 



8 EVANGELINE 

Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen 

summers. 
Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the 

thorn by the way-side, 
Black, yet how softly they gleamed beneath the 

brown shade of her tresses ! 
Sweet was her breath as the breath of kine that feed 

in the meadows. 
When in the harvest heat she bore to the reapers 

at noontide 70 

Flagons 18 of home-brewed ale, ah ! fair in sooth was 

the maiden. 
Fairer was she when, on Sunday morn, while the 

bell from its turret 
Sprinkled with holy sounds the air, as the priest with 

his hyssop 19 
Sprinkles the congregation, and scatters blessings upon 

them, 20 
Down the long street she passed, with her chaplet of 

beads 21 and her missal, 
Wearing her Norman cap, 22 and her kirtle of blue, 

and the ear-rings, 
Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as 

an heirloom, 



IS. Describe a flagon. 

19. Aspersorium. The instrument used in Roman Catholic 
Churches for sprinkling Holy Water. 
•20. Explain and criticise this simile. 

21. A Rosary. 

22. Study Footnote 9, Canto I. 



EVANGELINE 9 

Handed down from mother to child, through long 
generations. 

But a celestial brightness — a more ethereal beauty — 

Shone on her face and encircled her form, when, after 

confession, 80 

Homeward serenely she walked with God's benedic- 
tion upon her. 

When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of 
exquisite music. 23 

Firmly builded with rafters of oak, the house of the 
farmer 

Stood on the side of a hill commanding the sea; and 
a shady 

Sycamore grew by the door, with a woodbine wreath- 
ing around it. 

Rudely carved was the porch, with seats beneath ; and 
a footpath 

Led through an orchard wide, and disappeared in the 
meadow. 

Under the sycamore-tree were hives overhung by a 
pent-house, 

Such as the traveler sees in regions remote by the 
roadside, 

Built o'er a box for the poor, or the blessed image of 

Mary. 24 90 



23. Explain this simile and criticise the accuracy of the 
figure. What is the antecedent of "if"? 

24. The reference is to the wayside shrines common in the rural 
districts of Southern Europe. 



10 EVANGELINE 

Farther down, on the slope of the hill, was the well 25 

with its moss-grown 
Bucket, fastened with iron, and near it a trough for 

the horses. 
Shielding the house from storms, on the north, were 

the barns and the farm-yard. 
There stood the broad-wheeled wains and the antique 

plows and the harrows ; 
There were the folds for the sheep ; and there, in his 

feathered seraglio, 26 
Strutted the lordly turkey, and crowed the cock, with 

the self-same 
Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent 

Peter. 27 
Bursting with hay were the barns, themselves a village. 

In each one 
Far o'er the gable projected a roof of thatch ; and a 

staircase, 
Under the sheltering eaves, led up to the odorous 

corn-loft. 10 ° 

There too the dove-cot stood, with its meek and inno- 
cent inmates 
Murmuring ever of love ; w T hile above in the variant 2s 

breezes 

25. The traveler in the " Land of Evangeline " to-day is shown an 
old well, discovered not long since, and now known as " Evangeline's 
Well." 

26. What is the meaning of this word! Is it a "native" or 
a "foreign" word! IVote its pronunciation. 

27. Tell the story to which reference is made in this line. 
23. What is the meaning and significance of this epithet? 



EVANGELINE 11 

Numberless noisy weathercocks rattled and sang of 
mutation. 29 

Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer 

of Grand-Pre 
Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed 

his household. 
Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened 

his missal, 
Fixed his eyes upon her, as the saint of his deepest 

devotion ; 
Happy was he who might touch her hand or the hem 

of her garment ! 
Many a suitor came to her door, by the darkness 

befriended, 
And as he knocked and waited to hear the sound of 

her footsteps, 110 

Knew not which beat the louder, his heart or the 

knocker of iron ; 
Or at the joyous feast of the Patron Saint of the vil- 
lage, 
Bolder grew, and pressed her hand in the dance as 

he whispered 
Hurried words of love, that seemed a part of the 

music. 
But, among all who came, young Gabriel only was 

welcome ; 
Gabriel Lajeunesse, the son of Basil the blacksmith, 

29. Paraphrase the line. 



12 EVANGELINE 

Who was a mighty man in the village, and honored 

of all men ; 
For since the birth of time, throughout all ages and 

nations, 
Has the craft of the smith been held in repute by the 

people. 30 
Basil was Benedict's friend. Their children from 

earliest childhood 12 ° 

Grew up together as brother and sister, and Father 

Felician, 
Priest and pedagogue both in the village, had taught 

them their letters 
Out of the selfsame book, with the hymns of the 

church and the plain-song. 31 
But when the hymn w r as sung, and the daily lesson 

completed, 
Swiftly they hurried away to the forge of Basil the 

blacksmith. 
There at the door they stood, with wondering eyes 

to behold him 
Take in his leathern lap the hoof of the horse as a 

plaything, 
Nailing the shoe in its place ; while near him the 

tire of the cart-wheel 



30. Held in honor as the forger of weapons and tools without which 
man could not maintain himself. 

31. The name given by the Church of Rome to the ecclesiastical 
chant; an extremely simple melody, admitting only notes of equal 
value, rarely extending beyond the compass of an octave, and never 
exceeding nine notes, the staff on which the notes are placed consist- 
ing only of four lines. The clefs are C and F. 



EVANGELINE 13 

Lay like a fiery snake, coiled round in a circle of cin- 
ders. 

Oft on autumnal eves, when without in the gather- 
ing darkness 130 

Bursting with light seemed the smithy, through every 
cranny and crevice, 

Warm by the forge within they watched the laboring 
bellows, 

And as its panting ceased, and the sparks expired in 
the ashes, 

Merrily laughed, and said they were nuns going into 
the chapel. 

Oft on sledges in winter, as swift as the swoop of the 
eagle, 

Down the hillside bounding, they glided away o'er 
the meadow. 

Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests 
on the rafters, 

Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone, 32 which 
the swallow 

Brings from the shore of the sea to restore the sight 
of its fledglings 

Lucky was he who found that stone in the nest of the 

swallow ! 140 



32. A stone fabled to be brought from the seashore by swallows to 
give sight to their young. This stone, when found in the nest of the 
swallow, will perform many wonderful cures. "If it be lapped in a 
fair cloth and tyed to the right arm, it will cure lunaticks and mad- 
men, and make them amiable and merry." — Burton's Anatomy of 
Melancholy. 



14 EVANGELINE 

Thus passed a few swift years, and they no longer 

were children. 
He was a valiant youth, and his face, like the face of 

the morning, 
Gladdened the earth with its light and ripened 

thought into action. 
She was a woman now, with the heart and hopes of 

a woman. 
"Sunshine of Saint Eulalie 33 was she called; for 

that was the sunshine 
Which, as the farmers believed, would load their 

orchards with apples ; 
She, too, would bring to her husband's house delight 

and abundance, 
Filling it full of love and the ruddy faces of children. 

33. St. Eulalie's Day is the 1211i of February. Sunshine at that 
season is supposed to he beneficial to the orchards. 



EVANGELINE 15 



Canto II. The Royal Summons 

Introductory Note. This portion of the poem', the opening 
lines of which contain an exquisite description of the Indian 
Summer, introduces the romantic element of the story. Al- 
though the scenes described are, apparently, a continuation of 
the peaceful scenes of the preceding canto, the impression pro- 
duced is that of some impending calamity ; and the reader fails 
to share the optimistic views of Benedict Bellefontaine in regard 
to the significance of the royal summons. 

Now had the season returned, -when the nights grow 
colder and longer, 

And the retreating sun the sign of the Scorpion 1 en- 
ters. 150 

Birds of passage sailed through the leaden 2 air, from 
the ice-bound, 

Desolate northern bays to the shores of tropical is- 
lands, 

Harvests were gathered in ; and wild with the winds 
of September 

Wrestled the trees of the forests, as Jacob of old with 
the angel. 3 

All the signs foretold a winter long and inclement. 

Bees, with prophetic instinct of want, had hoarded 
their honey 

1. According to old astronomical notions, the apparent path of 
the sun among the stars is divided into twelve sections called signs, 
to which fanciful names of animals and other objects have been 
given. The sun enters the sign of the Scorpion in the month of 
October. 

2. Give the fnll significance of this epithet. 

3. Tell the story to which reference is made and state the 
basis of the comparison. Learn Outline Study, ]Yote 17. 



16 EVANGELINE 

Till the hives overflowed ; and the Indian hunters 
asserted 

Cold would the winter be, for thick was the fur of 
the foxes. 

Such was the advent of autumn. Then followed that 
beautiful season, 

Called by the pious Acadian peasants the Summer of 

All-Saints ! 4 "o 

Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light ; 
and the landscape 

Lay as if new created in all the freshness of child- 
hood. 

Peace seemed to reign upon earth, and the restless 
heart of the ocean 

Was for a moment consoled. All sounds were in 
harmony blended. 

Voices of children at play, the crowing of cocks in 
the farmyards, 

Whir of wings in the drowsy air, 5 and the cooing of 
pigeons, 

All were subdued and low as the murmurs of love, 
and the great sun 

Looked with the eye of love through the golden va- 
pors around him ; 



4. The second or autumnal summer, said to last thirty days, begins 
about the time that the sun enters the sign of the Scorpion. It is 
variously called (1) St.' Martin's summer; (2) All Saints' summer; 
(3) Indian summer. 

5. What effect is produced hy the sound of this line? 



EVANGELINE 17 

While arrayed in its robes of russet and scarlet and 

yellow, 6 
Bright with the sheen of the dew, each glittering tree 

of the forest 170 

Flashed like the plane-tree the Persian adorned with 

mantles and jewels. 7 

Now recommenced the reign of rest and affection and 
stillness. 

Day with its burden and heat had departed, and twi- 
light descending 

Brought back the evening star to the sky, and the 
herds to the homestead. 

Pawing the ground they came, and resting their necks 
on each other, 

And with their nostrils distended inhaling the fresh- 
ness of evening. 

Foremost, bearing the bell, Evangeline's beautiful 
heifer, 

Proud of her snow-white hide, and the ribbon that 
waved from her collar, 

Quietly paced and slow, as if conscious of human 
affection. 

Then came the shepherd back with his bleating flocks 

from the seaside, 180 

Where was their favorite pasture. Behind them fol- 
lowed the watch-dog, 

6. Reproduce in your own words the scene described in 
lines 161-171. 

7. Iiearn Outline Study, Note* 13. 



18 EVANGELINE 

Patient, full of importance, and grand in the pride of 
his instinct, 

Walking from side to side with a lordly air, and 
superbly 

Waving his bushy tail, and urging forward the strag- 
glers ; 

Regent of flocks was he when the shepherd slept ; 
their protector, 

When from the forest at night, through the starry 
silence, the wolves howled. 

Late, with the rising moon, returned the wains from 
the marshes, 

Laden with briny hay, that filled the air with its 
odor. 

Cheerily neighed the steeds, with dew on their manes 
and their fetlocks, 

While aloft on their shoulders the wooden and pon- 
derous saddles, 190 

Painted with brilliant dyes, and adorned with tassels 
of crimson, 

Nodded in bright array, like hollyhocks heavy with 
blossoms. 

Patiently stood the cows meanwhile, and yielded 
their udders 

Unto the milkmaid's hand ; whilst loud and in regular 
cadence 

Into the sounding pails the foaming streamlets de- 
scended. 



EVANGELINE 19 

Lowing of cattle and peals of laughter were heard in 

the farmyard, 
Echoed back by the barns. Anon they sank into 

stillness ; 
Heavily closed with a jarring sound, the valves of 

the barn doors, 
Rattled the wooden bars, and all for a season was 

silent. 
Indoors, warm by the wide-mouthed fireplace, idly 

the farmer 200 

Sat in his elbow chair ; and watched how the flames 

and the smoke-wreaths 
Struggled together like foes in a burning city. Be- 
hind him, 
Nodding and mocking along the wall, with gestures 

fantastic, 
Darted his own huge shadow, and vanished away 

into darkness. 
Faces, clumsily carved in oak, on the back of his 

arm-chair 
Laughed in the flickering light, and the pewter plates 

on the dresser 
Caught and reflected the flame, as shields of armies 

the sunshine. 8 
Fragments of song the old man sang, and carols of 

Christmas, 



8. Reproduce in your own words the scene described in lines 
200-207. 



20 EVANGELINE 

Such as at home, in the olden time, his fathers before 

him 
Sang in their Norman orchards and bright Burgun- 

dian vineyards. ' 210 

Close at her father's side was the gentle Evangeline 

seated, 
Spinning flax for the loom, that stood in the corner 

behind her. 
Silent awhile were its treadles, at rest was its diligent 

shuttle, 
While the monotonous drone of the wheel, like the 

drone of a bagpipe, 
Followed the old man's song, and united the frag- 
ments together. 9 
As in a church, when the chant of the choir at inter- 
vals ceases, 
Footfalls are heard in the aisles, or words of the 

priest at the altar, 
So, in each pause of the song, with measured motion 

the clock clicked. 10 
Thus as they sat, there were footsteps heard, and 

suddenly lifted, 
Sounded the wooden latch, and the door swung back 

on its hinges. 220 

Benedict knew by the hob-nailed shoes it was Basil 

the blacksmith, 

9. What is the poet's purpose in inserting this long descrip- 
tion of an autumn day and evening in Grand-PreT 

10. The clock clicked. Show that this is more expressive than 
the usual expression " the clock ticked." 



EVANGELINE 21 

And by her beating heart Evangeline knew who was 

with him. 
"Welcome!" the farmer exclaimed, as their foot- 
steps paused on the threshold, 
"Welcome, Basil, my friend! Come, take thy place 

on the settle 
Close by the chimney-side, which is always empty 

without thee ; 
Take from the shelf overhead thy pipe and the box 

of tobacco ; 
Never so much thyself art thou as when through the 

curling 
Smoke of the pipe or the forge thy friendly and jovial 

face gleams 
Round and red as the harvest moon through the mist 

of the marshes." 
Then, with a smile of content, thus answered Basil 

the blacksmith, 230 

Taking with easy air the accustomed seat by the fire- 
side — 
" Benedict Belief ontaine, thou hast ever thy jest and 

thy ballad ! 
Ever in • cheerf ulest mood art thou, when others are 

filled with 
Gloomy forebodings of ill, and see only ruin before 

them. 
Happy art thou, as if every day thou hadst picked up 
. a horseshoe." 11 

11. It is "lucky" to pick up a horseshoe. This is clue to the old 
superstition that a horseshoe was a protection against witches. 



22 EVANGELINE 

Pausing a moment, to take the pipe that Evangeline 

brought him, 
And with a coal from the embers had lighted, he 

slowly continued — 
" Four days now are passed since the English ships 

at their anchors 
Ride in the Gaspereau's 12 mouth, with their cannon 

pointed against us. 
What their design may be is unknown; 13 but all are 

commanded 240 

On the morrow to meet in the church, where his 

Majesty's mandate 14 
Will be proclaimed as law in the land. Alas ! in the 

meantime 
Many surmises of evil alarm the hearts of the people." 
Then made answer the farmer : " Perhaps some 

friendlier purpose 
Brings these ships to our shores. Perhaps the har- 
vests in England 
By the untimely rains or untimelier heat have been 

blighted, 



12. A small river flowing into the Minas basin near Grand-Pre. 

13. The ships had just returned from a successful expedition against 
the Canadian French on the isthmus connecting Nova Scotia with the 
mainland. Many young men of the Acadians were found with the 
French forces. 

14. The expulsion of the Acadians was, of course, carried out in the 
name of George II, King of England; but the orders under which 
General Winslow acted emanated from William Shirley, Governor of 
Massachusetts and Commander-in-chief of the British forces in North 
America. 



EVANGELINE 23 

And from our bursting barns they would feed their 

cattle and children." 
"Not so thinketh the folk in the village," said, 

warmly, the blacksmith, 
Shaking his head, as in doubt; then, heaving a sigh, 

he continued — 
" Louisburg is not forgotten, nor Beau Sejour, nor 

Port Royal. 15 250 

Many already have fled to the forest, 16 and lurk on 

its outskirts, 
Waiting with anxious hearts the dubious fate of to- 
morrow. 
Arms have been taken from us, and warlike weapons 

of all kinds ; 
Nothing is left but the blacksmith's sledge and the 

scythe of the mower." 
Then with a pleasant smile made answer the jovial 

farmer : 
" Safer are we unarmed, in the midst of our flocks 

and our cornfields, 
Safer within these peaceful dikes, besieged by the 

ocean, 
Than were our fathers in forts, besieged by the 

enemy's cannon. 
Fear no evil, my friend, and to-night may no shadow r 

of sorrow 



15. Learn Outline Study, IVote 6. 

16. Learn Outline Study, ]\ote 5. 



24 EVANGELINE 

Fall on this house and hearth ; for this is the night 

of the contract. 260 

Built are the house and the barn. The merry lads 

of the village 
Strongly have built them and well ; and, breaking 

the glebe round about them, 
Filled the barn with hay, and the house with food 

for a twelvemonth. 17 
Rene Leblanc will be here anon, with his papers and 

inkhorn. 
Shall we not then be glad, and rejoice in the joy of 

our children ? " 
As apart by the window she stood, with her hand 

in her lover's, 
Blushing Evangeline heard the words that her father 

had spoken, 
And as they died on his lips the worthy notary ls 
entered. 



17. " Among the Acadians, no one passed his youth in a state of 
celibacy. As soon as a young man came to the proper age, the com- 
munity built him a house, broke up the lands about it, sowed them., 
and supplied him with all the necessaries of life for a twelvemonth. 
Here he received the partner whom he had chosen, and who brought 
him her portion in flocks."— Abbe Raynal. 

18. A public officer authorized to attest deeds and contracts. 



EVANGELINE 25 



Canto III. The Ceremony of Betrothal 

Introductory Note. — Canto III shows the interior of a well- 
ordered Acadian home, and gives the poet an opportunity for 
some skillful character drawing. The attention of the reader 
is centered upon the lovers, to the exclusion of the threatened 
tragedy. 

Bent like a laboring oar, that toils in the surf of the 
ocean, 

Bent, but not broken, by age was the form of the 

notary public ; .270 

Shocks of yellow hair, like the silken floss of the 
maize, hung 

Over his shoulders ; his forehead was high ; and 
glasses with horn bows 

Sat astride on his nose, with a look of wisdom super- 
nal. 

Father of twenty children was he, and more than a 
hundred 

Children's children rode on his knee, and heard his 
great watch tick. 

Four long years in the times of the war had he lan- 
guished a captive, 

Suffering much in an old French fort as the friend of 
the English. 

Now, though warier grown, without all guile or sus- 
picion, 

Ripe in wisdom was he, but patient, and simple and 
childlike. 



26 EVANGELINE 

He was beloved by all, and most of all by the chil- 
dren ; " 28 ° 

For he told them tales of the Loup-garou 1 in the 
forest, 

And of the goblin that came in the night to water 
the horses, 2 

And of the white Letiche, 3 the ghost of a child, who 
unchristened 

Died, and was doomed to haunt unseen the chambers 
of children ; 

And how on Christmas eve the oxen talked in the 
stable, 4 

And how the fever was cured by a spider shut up in 
a nutshell, 5 

And of the marvelous powers of four-leaved clover 
and horseshoes, 

With whatsoever else was writ in the lore of the vil- 
lage. 

1. A " bogie " who roams about devouring infants, sometimes under 
the form of a man, sometimes as a wolf followed by dogs, sometimes 
as a white dog, sometimes as a black goat, and occasionally invisible. 
Its skin is bullet proof, unless the bullet has been blessed in a chapel 
dedicated to St. Hubert. 

2. The Kobold or Brownie. A house spirit who attaches himself to 
certain families and resides with them for centuries, threshing the 
corn, cleaning the house, watering the horses, and doing everything 
done by the most industrious servant. These things are done secretly, 
in the night; and as a reward, the goblin asks only that a nice bowl 
of cream or some fresh honeycomb be left in a snug private corner. 

3. The poet relates the whole of this superstition. 

4. The belief was once common that at twelve o'clock on Christmas 
Eve, the oxen in their stalls were always found on their knees as in 
an attitude of devotion, offering thanks to God. 

5. According to an old superstition, fever may be cured by wearing 
a spider in a nutshell around the neck. 



EVANGELINE 27 

Then up rose from his seat by the fireside Basil the 
blacksmith, 

Knocked from his pipe the ashes, and slowly extend- 
ing his right hand, " 29 ° 

"Father Leblanc," he exclaimed, "thou hast heard 
the talk in the village, 

And, perchance, canst tell us some news of these 
ships and their errand." 

Then with modest demeanor made answer the notary 
public — 

" Gossip enough have I heard, in sooth, yet am never 
the wiser ; 

And what their errand may be I know not better 
than others. 

Yet am I not of those who imagine some evil inten- 
tion 

Brings them here, for we are at peace ; and why then 
molest us ? " 

"God's name!" shouted the hasty and somewhat 
irascible blacksmith ; 

" Must we in all things look for the how, and the 
why, and the wherefore? 

Daily injustice is done, and might is the right of the 

strongest ! " 6 300 

But, without heeding his warmth, continued the no- 
tary public — 

"Man is unjust, but God is just; and finally justice 

6. Discuss this line. 



28 EVANGELINE 

Triumphs ; and well I remember a story, that often 

consoled me, 
When as a captive I lay in the old French fort at 

Port Royal." 
This was the old man's favorite tale, and he loved to 

repeat it 
When his neighbors complained that any injustice 

was done them. 
" Once in an ancient city, whose name I no longer 

remember, 
Raised aloft on a Column, a brazen statue of Justice 
Stood in the public square, upholding the scales 7 in 

its left hand, 
And in its right a sword, as an emblem that justice 

presided 310 

Over the laws of the land, and the hearts and homes 

of the people. 
Even the birds had built their nests in the scales of 

the balance, 
Having no fear of the sword that flashed in the sun- 
shine above them. 
But in the course of time the laws of the land were 

corrupted ; 
Might took the place of right, and the weak were 

oppressed, and the mighty 
Ruled with an iron rod. Then it chanced in a noble- 
man's palace 

7. The reference is to the conventional representation of Justice as 
a goddess with eyes blindfolded, holding the scales and the sword. 



EVANGELINE 29 

That a necklace of pearls was lost, and ere long a • 

suspicion 
Fell on an orphan girl who lived as maid in the 

household. 
She, after form of trial condemned to die on the 

scaffold, 
Patiently met her doom at the foot of the statue of 

Justice. 320 

As to her Father in heaven her innocent spirit as- 
cended, 
Lo ! o'er the city a tempest rose ; and the bolts of 

the thunder 
Smote the statue of bronze, and hurled in wrath 

from its left hand 
Down on the pavement below the clattering scales of 

the balance, 
And in the hollow thereof was found the nest of a 

magpie, 
Into whose clay-built walls the necklace of pearls was 

inwoven." 
Silenced, but not convinced, when the story was 

ended, the blacksmith 
Stood like a man who fain would speak, but findeth 

no language ; 
All his thoughts were congealed into lines on his 

face, as the vapors 
Freeze in fantastic shapes on the window-panes in 

the winter. ,i3 ° 

Then Evangeline lighted the brazen lamp on the table, 



30 EVANGELINE 

Filled, till it overflowed, the pewter tankard with 

home-brewed 
Nut-brown ale, that was famed for its strength in the 

village of Grand-Pre ; • ' 

While from his pocket the notary drew his papers and 

inkhorn, 
Wrote with a steady hand the date and the age of the 

parties, 
Naming the dower of the bride in flocks of sheep and 

in cattle. 
Orderly all things proceeded, and duly and well were 

completed, 
And the great seal of the law was set like a sun on 

the margin. 
Then from his leathern pouch the farmer threw on the 

table 
Three times the old man's fee in solid pieces of silver ; 340 
And the notary rising, and blessing the bride and the 

bridegroom, 
Lifted aloft the tankard of ale and drank to their 

welfare. 
Wiping the foam from his lip, he solemnly bowed 

and departed, 
While in silence the others sat and mused by the 

fireside, 
Till Evangeline brought the draught-board out of its 

corner. 
Soon was the game begun. In friendly contention the 

old men 



EVANGELINE 31 

Laughed at each lucky hit, or unsuccessful manoeuver, 
Laughed when a man was crowned, or a breach was 

made in the king-row. 8 
Meanwhile apart, in the twilight gloom of a window's 

embrasure, 
Sat the lovers, and whispered together, beholding the 

moon rise - 350 

Over the pallid sea and the silvery mist of the 

meadows. 
Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, 
Blossomed the lovely stars, the for-get-me-nots of the 

angels. 9 

Thus passed the evening away. Anon the bell from 

the belfry 
Rang out the hour of nine, the village curfew, 10 and 

straightway 
Rose the guests and departed ; and silence reigned in 

the household. 
Many a farewell word and sweet good-night on the 

doorstep 
Lingered long in Evangeline's heart, and filled it with 

gladness. 



8. Describe the manner in which the game of checkers or 
draughts is played, and explain the expression "breach was 
made in the king-row." 

9. This metaphor has heen severely criticised. "What is your 
opinion of the figure \ 

10. Give the derivation and meaning of this -word. 



32 EVANGELINE 

Carefully then were covered the embers that glowed 

on the hearthstone, 
And on the oaken stairs resounded the tread of the 

farmer. ' 360 

Soon with a soundless step the foot of Evangeline 

followed. 
Up the staircase moved a luminous space in the 

darkness, 
Lighted less by the lamp than the shining face of the 

• maiden. 
Silent she passed through the hall, and entered the 

door of her chamber. 
Simple that chamber was, with its curtains of white, 

and its clothes-press 
Ample and high, on whose spacious shelves were 

carefully folded 
Linen and woolen stuffs, by the hand of Evangeline 

woven. 
This was the precious dower she would bring to her 

husband in marriage, 
Better than flocks and herds, being proofs of her skill 

as a housewife. 
Soon she extinguished her lamp, for the mellow and 

radiant moonlight 3?0 

Streamed through the windows, and lighted the room, 

till the heart of the maiden 
Swelled and obeyed its power, like the tremulous tides 

of the ocean. 11 

11. Explain this line- 



EVANGELINE 33 

Ah ! she was fair, exceeding fair to behold, as she 

stood with 
Naked snow-white feet on the gleaming floor of her 

chamber ! 
Little she dreamed that below, among the trees of the 

orchard, 
Waited her lover and watched for the gleam of her 

lamp and her shadow. 
Yet were her thoughts of him, and at times a feeling 

of sadness 
Passed o'er her soul, as the sailing shade of clouds in 

the moonlight 
Flitted across the floor and darkened the room for a 

moment. 12 
And as she gazed from the window she saw serenely 

the moon pass, 13 380 

Forth from the folds of a cloud, and one star follow her 

footsteps, 
As out of Abraham's tent young Ishmael wandered 

with Hagar ! 14 



12. Wliat impression is produced by lines 370-379! 

13. Criticise the arrangement of the line. 

14. Tell that portion of the story which serves as a basis for 
the simile. 



34 EVANGELINE 

CANTO IV 

The Betrothal Feast 

Introductory Note. Canto IV consists of two parts, sharply 
contrasted: (i) The Betrothal Feast set out '"'■under the open 
sky, in the odorous air of the orchard" accompanied by the 
gay music of Michael the fiddler and by the " dizzying dance," 
and interrupted by the ominous sound of bell and beat of drum ; 
(2) The angry tumult in the church, stilled by the gentle 
rebuke of Father Felician. 

The pathetic contrast between the closing scenes of cantos 
iii and iv is worthy of careful study. 

Pleasantly rose next morn the sun on the village of 

Grand-Pre. 
Pleasantly gleamed in the soft, sweet air the Basin 

of Minas, 
Where the ships, with their wavering shadows, were 

riding at anchor. 
Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous 

labor 
Knocked with its hundred hands at the golden gates 

of the morning. 1 
Now from the country around, from the farms and 

the neighboring hamlets, 
Came in their holiday dresses the blithe Acadian 

peasants. 
Many a glad good-morrow and jocund laugh from the 

young folk 390 

1. Paraphrase lines SiStt and 5*84. "What figure of speech Is 
used here 1 



EVANGELINE 35 

Made the bright air brighter, as up from the numer- 
ous meadows, 
Where no path could be seen but the track of wheels 

in the greensward, 
Group after group appeared, and joined, or passed 

on the highway. 
Long ere noon, in the village all sounds of labor were 

silenced. 
Thronged were the streets with people ; and noisy 

groups at the house-doors 
Sat in the cheerful sun, and rejoiced and gossiped 

together, 
Every house was an inn, where all were welcomed 

and feasted ; 
For with this simple people, who lived like brothers 

together, 
All things were held in common, and what one had 

was another's. 
Yet under Benedict's roof hospitality seemed more 

abundant : 400 

For Evangeline stood among the guests of her father ; 
Bright was her face with smiles, and words of wel- 
come and gladness 
Fell from her beautiful lips, and blessed the cup as 

she gave it. 
Under the open sky, in the odorous air of the orchard, 
Bending with golden fruit, was spread the feast of 

betrothal. 
There in the shade of the porch were the priest and 

the notary seated ; 



36 EVANGELINE 

There good Benedict sat, and sturdy Basil the black- 
smith. 
Not far withdrawn from these, by the cider-press 

arid the beehives, 
Michael the fiddler was placed, with the gayest of 

hearts and of waistcoats. 
Shadow and light from the leaves alternately played 

on his snow-white 41 ° 

Hair, as it waved in the wind ; and the jolly face of 

the fiddler 
Glowed like a living coal when the ashes are blown 

from the embers. 
Gayly the old man sang to the vibrant sound of his 

fiddle, 
Tons les Bourgeois de Chartres, and Le Carillon 

de Dunkerque, 
And anon with his wooden shoes beat time to the 

music. 
Merrily, merrily whirled the wheels of the dizzying 2 

dances 
Under the orchard-trees and down the path to the 

meadows ; 
Old folk and young together, and children mingled 

among them. 
Fairest of all the maids w T as Evangeline, Benedict's 

daughter ! 
Noblest of all the youths was Gabriel, son of the 

blacksmith ! 

2. What effect is produced hy the words, "dizzying 

dances " 1 



EVANGELINE 37 

The King's Mandate 

So passed the morning away. And lo ! with a sum- 
mons sonorous 420 

Sounded the bell from its tower, and over the mead- 
ows a drum beat. 

Thronged ere long was the church with men. With- 
out, in the churchyard, 

Waited the women. They stood by the graves, and 
hung on the headstones 

Garlands of autumn leaves and evergreens fresh from 
the forest. 

Then came the guard from the ships, and marching 
proudly among them 

Entered the sacred portal. With loud and dissonant 
clangor 

Echoed the sound of their brazen drums 3 from ceiling 
and casement — 

Echoed a moment only, and slowly the ponderous 
portal, 

Closed, and in silence the crowd awaited the will of 
the soldiers. 

Then uprose their commander, and spake from the 

steps of the altar, 430 

Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal 
commission. 

" You are convened this day," he said, " by his 
Majesty's orders. 

3. Brazen drums, i. e., irreverent or impudent drums. 



38 EVANGELINE 

Clement and kind has he been ; but how you have 

answered his kindness, 4 
Let your own hearts reply ! To my natural make 

and my temper 
Painful the task is I do, which to you I know must 

be grievous. 
Yet must I bow and obey, and deliver the will of our 

monarch ; 
Namely, that all your lands, and dwellings, and 

cattle of all kinds 
Forfeited be to the crown ; and that you yourselves 

from this province 
Be transported to other lands. God grant you may 

dwell there 
Ever as faithful subjects, a happy and peaceable 

people ! ' 440 

Prisoners now I declare you ; for such is his Majesty's 

pleasure ! " 
As, when the air is serene in the sultry solstice 5 of 

summer, 
Suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the 

hailstones 
Beats down the farmer's corn in the field and shatters 

his windows, 
Hiding the sun, and strewing the ground with thatch 

from the house-roofs, 



i. Study Introduction 2, paragraph 2. 

5. The time of longest daylight, when, for a few days, the diurnal 
motion of the sun in declination ceases. 



E VANGELINE 39 

Bellowing fly the herds, and seek to break their 

inclosures ; 
So on the hearts of the people descended the words 

of the speaker. 
Silent a moment they stood in speechless wonder, 

and then rose 
Louder and ever louder a wail of sorrow and anger, 
And, by one impulse moved, they madly rushed to 

the doorway. 45 ° 

Vain was the hope of escape ; and cries and fierce 

imprecations 
Rang through the house of prayer ; and high o'er the 

heads of the others 
Rose, with his arms uplifted, the figure of Basil the 

blacksmith, 
As, on a stormy sea, a spar is tossed by the billows. 
Flushed was his face and distorted with passion, and 

wildly he shouted — 
" Down with the tyrants of England ! we never have 

sworn them allegiance ! 6 
Death to these foreign soldiers, who seize on our 

homes and our harvests ! " 
More he fain would have said, but the merciless hand 

of a soldier 
Smote him upon the mouth, and dragged him down 

to the pavement. 
In the midst of the strife and tumult of angry conten- 
tion, 460 

6. Learn Outline Study, IVote 2, paragraph 3. 



40 E VANGELINE 

Lo ! the door of the chancel opened, and Father Fe- 

lician 
Entered, with serious mien, and ascended the steps 

of the altar. 
Raising his reverend hand, with a gesture he awed 

into silence 
All that clamorous throng ; and thus he spake to his 

people ; 
Deep were his tones and solemn ; in accents measured 

and mournful 
Spake he, as, after the tocsin's alarum, distinctly the 

clock strikes. 
"What is this that ye do, my children? what mad- 
ness has seized you ? 
Forty years of my life have I. labored among you, and 

taught you, 
Not in word alone, but in deed, to love one another ! 
Is this the fruit of my toils, of my vigils and prayers 

and privations ? 47 ° 

Have you so soon forgotten all lessons of love and 

forgiveness ? 
This is the house of the Prince of Peace, and would 

you profane it 
Thus with violent deeds and hearts overflowing with 

hatred ? 
Lo ! where the crucified Christ from His cross is 

gazing upon you ! 
See ! in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy 

compassion ! 



EVANGELINE 41 

Hark ! how those lips still repeat the prayer, ' O 

Father, forgive them ! ' 
Let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked 

assail us, 
Let us repeat it now, and say, ' O Father, forgive 

them ! ' " 
Few were his words of rebuke, but deep in the hearts 

of his people 
Sank they, and sobs of contrition succeeded that pas- 
sionate outbreak ; 48 ° 
And they repeated his prayer, and said, " O Father, 

forgive them ! " 7 
Then came the evening service. The tapers gleamed 

from the altar. 
Fervent and deep was the voice of the priest, and the 

people responded, 
Not with their lips alone, but their hearts ; and the 

Ave Maria s 
Sang they, and fell on their knees, and their souls, 

with devotion translated, 
Rose on the ardor of prayer, like Elijah ascending 

to heaven. 9 

Meanwhile had spread in the village the tidings of 
ill, and on all sides 

7. Reproduce in your own words tlie scene described in lines 
430-481. 

8. The first two words of the angel's salutation to the Virgin Mary 
(Luke i. 28). In the Roman Catholic Church the phrase is applied to 
an invocation to the Virgin beginning with these words. 

9. Criticise the simile. 



42 EVANGELINE 

Wandered, wailing, from house to house the women 

and children. 
Long at her father's door Evangeline stood, with .her 

right hand 
Shielding her eyes from the level rays of the sun, 

that, descending, 490 

Lighted the village street with mysterious splendor, 

and roofed each 
Peasant's cottage with golden thatch, and emblazoned 

its windows. 
Long within had been spread the snow-white cloth on 

the table ; 
There stood the wheaten loaf, and the honey fragrant 

with wild flowers ; 
There stood the tankard of ale, and the cheese fresh 

brought from the dairy ; 
And at the head of the board the great armchair of 

the farmer. 10 
Thus did Evangeline wait at her father's door, as the 

sunset 
Threw the long shadows of trees o'er the broad am- 
brosial meadows. 11 
Ah ! on her spirit within a deeper shadow had fallen, 
And from the fields of her soul a fragrance celestial 

ascended — 12 500 



10. Show that lines 493-496 heighten the effect of the scenes 
that follow. 

11. Ambrosia is the name given to the food of the gods; hence any- 
thing delicious to the taste or fragrant in perfume is called ambro- 
sial. Here the adjective means sweet-smelling. 

12. Explain this line. 



EVANGELINE 43 

Charity, meekness, love, and hope, and forgiveness, 
and patience ! 

Then, all-forgetful of self, she wandered into the vil- 
lage, 

Cheering with looks and words the disconsolate hearts 
of the women, 

As o'er the darkening fields with lingering steps they 
departed, 

Urged by their household cares, and the weary feet 
of their children. 

Down sank the great red sun, and in golden, glim- 
mering vapors 

Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet descend- 
ing from Sinai. 

Sweetly over the village the bell of the Angelus 
sounded. 13 

Meanwhile, amid the gloom, by the church Evange- 
line lingered. 

All was silent within ; and in vain at the door and 

the windows 510 

Stood she, and listened and looked, until, overcome 
by emotion, 

' ' Gabriel ! " cried she aloud with tremulous voice ; 
but no answer 

Came from the graves of the dead, nor the gloomier 
grave of the living. 14 

13. Bring out the contrast between this scene and the earlier 
scene in which " the hell of the Angelus " sounded. 

14. i. e. The church in -which the Acadians were confined. 



44 EVANGELINE 

Slowly at length she returned to the tenantless house 

of her father. 
Smouldered the fire on the hearth, on the board 

stood the supper untasted, 
Empty and drear was each room, and haunted with 

phantoms of terror. 
Sadly echoed her step on the stair and the floor of 

her chamber. 
In the dead of the night she heard the whispering 

rain fall 
Loud on the withered leaves of the sycamore tree by 

the window. 
Keenly the lightning flashed ; and the voice of the 

echoing thunder 520 

Told her that God was in heaven, and governed the 

world he created ! 
Then she remembered the tale she had heard of the 

justice of heaven ; 15 
Soothed was her troubled soul, and she peacefully 

slumbered till morning. 

15. Relate the circumstances nnder which this tale had been 
told. 



EVANGELINE 45 



Canto V. At the Gaspereau's Mouth 

Introductory Note. The scenes of this canto, described so 
dramatically and with such minuteness of detail, produce the 
impression intended — that the Deportation of the Acadians 
was an act of unjustifiable cruelty. Whatever his previous 
opinion may have been, the reader's sympathy, at the close 
of Part I of the poem, is wholly with the Acadians as, leaving 
behind them the dead o?i the shore and their village in ruins, 
they begin that exile without an e?id and without an example in 
story. 

Four times the sun had risen and set ; and now on 

the fifth day 
Cheerily called the cock to the sleeping maids of the 

farmhouse. 
Soon o'er the yellow fields, in silent and mournful 

procession, 
Came from the neighboring hamlets and farms the 

Acadian women, 
Driving in ponderous wains their household goods to 

the seashore, 
Pausing and looking back to gaze once more on their 

dwellings, 
Ere they were shut from sight by the winding road 

and the woodland. 530 

Close at their sides their children ran, and urged on 

the oxen, 
While in their little hands they clasped some frag- 
ments of playthings. 

Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth they hurried ; and 
there on the sea-beach 



. 46 EVANGELINE 

Piled in confusion lay the household goods of the 

peasants. 
All day long between the shore and the ships did the 

boats ply ; 
All day long the wains came laboring down from the 

village. 
Late in the afternoon, when the sun was near to his 

setting, 
Echoing far o'er the fields came the roll of drums 

from the churchyard. 
Thither the women and children thronged. On a 

sudden the church-doors 
Opened, and forth came the guard, and marching in 

gloomy procession 540 

Followed the long-imprisoned, but patient, Acadian 

farmers. 
Even as pilgrims, who journey afar from their homes 

and their country, 
Sing as they go, and in singing forget they are weary 

and wayworn, 
So with songs on their lips the Acadian peasants de- 
scended 
Down from the church to the shore, amid their wives 

and their daughters. 
Foremost the young men came ; and, raising together 

their voices, 
Sang they with tremulous lips a chant of the Catholic 

Missions — 



EVANGELINE 47 

"Sacred heart of the Saviour! O inexhaustible 
fountain ! 

Fill our hearts this day with strength and submission 
and patience ! " 

Then the old men, as they marched, and the women 

that stood by the wayside 550 

Joined in the sacred psalm, and the birds in the sun- 
shine above them 

Mingled their notes therewith, like voices of spirits 
departed. 

Half-way down to the shore Evangeline waited in 
silence, 

Not overcome with grief", but strong in the hour of 
affliction — 

Calmly and sadly waited, until the procession ap- 
proached her, 

And she beheld the face of Gabriel pale with emo- 
tion. 

Tears then filled her eyes, and, eagerly running to 
meet him, 

Clasped she his hands, and laid her head on his 
shoulder and wdiispered — 

" Gabriel ! be of good cheer ! for if we love one an- 
other, 

Nothing, in truth, can harm us, whatever mischances 

may happen ! " 560 

Smiling she spake these words ; then suddenly paused, 
for her father 



48 EVANGELINE 

Saw she slowly advancing. Alas ! how changed was 
his aspect ! 

Gone was the glow from his cheek, and the lire from 
his eye, and his footstep 

Heavier seemed with the weight of the weary heart 
in his bosom. 

But with a smile and a sigh she clasped his neck and 
embraced him, 

Speaking words of endearment where words of com- 
fort availed not. 

Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mourn- 
ful procession. 

There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir of 

embarking. 
Busily plied the freighted boats ; and in the confu- 
sion 
Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, 

too late, saw their children 57Q 

Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest 

entreaties. 
So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried, 
While in despair on the shore Evangeline stood with 

her father. 
Half the task was not done when the sun went down, 

and the twilight 
Deepened and darkened around ; and in haste the 

refluent ocean 
Fled away from the shore, and left the line of the 

sand-beach 



EVANGELINE 49 

Covered with waifs 1 of the tide, with kelp 2 and the 

slippery seaweed. 
Farther back in the midst of the household goods and 

the wagons, 
Like to a gypsy camp, or a leaguer 3 after a battle, 
All escape cut off by the sea, and the sentinels near 

them, 580 

Lay encamped for the night the houseless Acadian 

farmers. 
Back to its nethermost caves retreated the bellowing- 

ocean, 
Dragging adown the beach the rattling pebbles, and 

leaving 
Inland and far up the shore the stranded boats of 

the sailors. 
Then, as the night descended, the herds returned 

from their pastures ; 
Sw r eet was the moist still air with the odor of milk 

from their udders ; 
Lowing they waited, and long, at the well-known 

bars of the farmyard — 
Waited and looked in vain for the voice and the hand 

of the milkmaid. 
Silence reigned in the streets ; from the church no 

Angelus sounded, 



1. Show that the expression " waifs of the tide " is an appro- 
priate one in this connection. 

2. Large seaweeds. 

3. The camp of a besieging army. Is the word a common one 1 



50 EVANGELINE 

Rose no smoke from the roofs, and gleamed no lights 

from the windows. 4 590 

But on the shores meanwhile the evening fires had 

been kindled, 
Built of the driftwood thrown on the sands from 

wrecks in the tempest. 
Round them shapes of gloom and sorrowful faces 

were gathered, 
Voices of women were heard, and of men, and the 

crying of children. 
Onward from fire to fire, as from hearth to hearth in 

his parish, 
Wandered the faithful priest, consoling and blessing 

and cheering, 
Like unto shipwrecked Paul on Melita's desolate sea- 
shore. 5 
Thus he approached the place where Evangeline sat 

with her father, 
And in the flickering light beheld the face of the old 

man, 
Haggard and hollow and wan, and without either 

thought or emotion, G0 ° 

E'en as the face of a clock from which the hands have 

been taken. 6 



4. Give all the details which enter into the composition of the pic- 
ture of lines 578-590. To what earlier scene does it form a striking 
contrast! 

5. Explain the comparison. 

6. Carry out the simile and criticise the figure. 



EVANGELINE 51 

Vainly Evangeline strove with words and caresses to 

cheer him, 
Vainly offered him food ; yet he moved not, he 

looked not, he spake not, 
But, with a vacant stare, ever gazed at the nickering 

firelight. 7 
"Benedicite /" 8 murmured the priest, in tones of 

compassion. 
More he fain would have said, but his heart was full, 

and his accents 
Faltered and paused on his lips, as the feet of a child 

on a threshold, 
Hushed by the scene he beholds, and the awful pres- 
ence of sorrow. 
Silently, therefore, he laid his hand on the head of 

the maiden, 
Raising his eyes, full of tears, to the silent stars that 

above them 6I0 

Moved on their way, unperturbed by the wrongs and 

sorrows of mortals. 9 
Then sat he down at her side, and they wept together 

in silence. 
Suddenly rose from the south a light, as in autumn 

the blood-red 



7. From the character of Benedict as it has been revealed to you, 
show the reason why this tragedy affected Benedict more deeply than 
it affected Basil the blacksmith. 

8. Give the meaning. From what language is the word! 

9. What is the effect of this line in the midst of the description 
of a scene so tragic. 



52 EVANGELINE 

Moon climbs the crystal walls of heaven, and o'er the 
horizon 

Titan-like stretches its hundred hands 10 upon moun- 
tain and meadow, 

Seizing the rocks and the rivers, and piling huge 
shadows together. 

Broader and ever broader it gleamed on the roofs of 
the village, 

Gleamed on the sky and the sea, and the ships that 
lay in the roadstead. 

Columns of shining smoke uprose, and flashes of 
flame were 

Thrust through their folds and withdrawn, like the 

quivering hands of a martyr. G20 

Then as the wind seized the srleeds 11 and the burning 
thatch, and, uplifting, 

Whirled them aloft through the air, at once from a 
hundred housetops 

Started the sheeted smoke with flashes of flame in- 
termingled. 12 

These things beheld in dismay the crowd on the 

shore and on shipboard. 
Speechless at first they stood, then cried aloud in 

their anguish, 



10. The Titans were the children of Heaven and Earth, who, insti- 
gated by their mother, deposed their father, and liberated from Tar- 
taros their brothers, the Hundred-handed giants. 

11. Burning brands. 

12. Reproduce, in your own words, lines 623-63:t. 



EVANGELINE 53 

"We shall behold no more our homes in the village 

of Grand-Pre ! " 
Loud on a sudden the cocks began to crow in the 

farmyards, 
Thinking the day had dawned ; and anon the lowing 

of cattle 
Came on the evening breeze, by the barking of dogs 

interrupted. 
Then rose a sound of dread, such as startles the 

sleeping encampments 630 

Far in the western prairies or forests that skirt the 

Nebraska, 13 
When the wild horses affrighted sweep by with the 

speed of the whirlwind, 
Or the loud bellowing herds of buffaloes rush to the 

river. 14 
Such was the sound that arose on the night, as the 

herds and the horses 
Broke through their folds and fences, and madly 

rushed o'er the meadows. 
Overwhelmed with the sight, yet speechless, the 

priest and the maiden 
Gazed on the scene of terror that reddened and 

widened before them ; 



13. Now known as the Platte River. 

14. When Evangeline was written, in 1848, immense herds of buffalo 
and wild horses were hunted by Indians and a few adventurous white 
men over the region now occupied by the grain fields of Kansas, 
Nebraska and the Dakotas. 



54 EVANGELINE 

And as they turned at length to speak to their silent 

companion, 
Lo ! from his seat he had fallen, and stretched abroad 

on the seashore 
Motionless lay his form from which the soul had 

departed. 640 

Slowly the priest uplifted the lifeless head, and the 

maiden 
Knelt at her father's side, and wailed aloud in her 

terror. 
Then in a swoon she sank, and lay with her head on 

his bosom. 
Through the long night she lay in deep, oblivious 

slumber : 
And when she woke from the trance, she beheld a 

multitude near her. 
Faces of friends she beheld, that were mournfully 

gazing upon her, 
Pallid, with tearful eyes, and looks of saddest com- 
passion. 
Still the blaze of the burning village illumined the 

landscape, 
Reddened the sky overhead, and gleamed on the 

faces around her, 
And like the day of doom it seemed to her wavering 

senses, 650 

Then a familiar voice she heard, as it said to the 

people — 
14 Let us bury him here by the sea. When a happier 

season 



EVANGELINE 55 

Brings us again to our homes from the unknown 

land of our exile, 
Then shall his sacred dust be piously laid in the 

churchyard." 
Such were the words of the priest. And there in 

haste by the seaside, 
Having the glare of the burning village for funeral 

torches, 
But without bell or book, 15 they buried the farmer of 

Grand-Pre . 
And as the voice of the priest repeated the service of 

sorrow, 
Lo ! with a mournful sound, like the voice of a vast 

congregation, 
Solemnly answered the sea, and mingled its roar with 

the dirges. 16 66 ° 

'Twas the returning tide,' that afar from the waste of 

the ocean, 
With the first dawn of the day, came heaving and 

hurrying landward. 
Then recommenced once more the stir and noise of 

embarking ; 
And with the ebb of that tide the ships sailed out of 

the harbor, 
Leaving behind them the dead on the shore, and the 

village in ruins. 

15. i. e. Without the rites of formal burial. 

16. Notice the beauty of lines 668-6 TO. 



PART THE SECOND 



Canto I. Evangeline's Quest 

Introductory Note. Ten years have passed since the burning 
of Grand-Pre, and many of the exiled Acadians are still 
wandering from city to city seeking their friends and relatives 
from whom they were separated on the day of the embarkation. 
Among them is Evangeline, who has spent these years in a 
futile search for her lover Gabriel. With her is Father Felician, 
her guide and counselor, who has taught her that her life need 
not be lived in vain even though her quest is destined to be 
hopeless ; that her love for Gabriel can find expression in 
thoughtful and loving service for those whom she meets on her 
journeying. 

Many a weary year had passed 1 since the burning of 

Grand-Pre, 
When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed, 
Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, 2 into 

exile, 
Exile without an end, and without an example in 

story. 
Far asunder, on separate coasts, 3 the Acadians landed ; 670 
Scattered were they, like flakes of snow when the 

wind from the northeast 

1. Learn Outline Study, IVote 7. 

2. i. e. All those things which help to endear home. The Romans 
had household gods who were supposed to preside over their private 
dwellings. 

3. Learn Introduction 2, paragraph O. 



EVANGELINE 57 

Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks 

of Newfoundland. 4 
Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from 

city to city, 
From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern 

savannas — 5 
From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands where 

the Father of Waters 6 
Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down to 

the ocean, 7 
Deep in their sands to bury the scattered bones of the 

mammoth. 
Friends they sought and homes ; and many, despair- 
ing, heartbroken, 
Asked of the earth but a grave, and no longer a 

friend nor a fireside. 
Written their history stands on tablets of stone in the 

churchyards. 680 

Long among them was seen a maiden who waited and 

wandered, 



4. When Evangeline was written, this word was always pro- 
nounced with the accent on the second syllable. The Banks of New- 
foundland are the fishing ground of the North Atlantic, where the 
warm and cold currents of the ocean meet, causing perpetual fog. 

5. From what language is this -word borrowed 1 What is 
its meaning 1 In what part of America is it used! 

6. The Mississippi. The name is said to mean " Father of Waters." 

7. Seizes the hills in his hands. A rather extravagant meta- 
phor for the erosive action of the Mississippi and its tributaries, of 
which the land known as the Mississippi Delta is the result. 



58 EVANGELINE 

Lowly and meek in spirit, and patiently suffering all 

things. 
Fair was she and young ; but, alas ! before her ex- 
tended, 
Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life, with its 

pathway 
Marked by the graves of those who had sorrowed and 

suffered before her, 
Passions long extinguished, and hopes long dead and 

abandoned, 
As the emigrant's way 8 o'er the Western desert is 

marked by 
Camp-fires long consumed, and bones that bleach in 

the sunshine. 
Something there was in her life incomplete, imperfect, 

unfinished ; 
As if a morning of June, with all its music and 

sunshine, 6 

Suddenly paused in the sky, and, fading, slowly 

descended 
Into the east again, from whence it late had arisen. 
Sometimes she lingered in towns, till, urged by the 

fever within her, 
Urged by a restless longing, the hunger and thirst of 

the spirit, 



8. In 1848, the emigrant's way was only a wagon trail across the 
Continent, the usual halting places along which were marked by the 
ashes of camp-fires and the hones of slaughtered animals. 



EVANGELINE 59 

She would commence again her endless search and 

endeavor ; 9 
Sometimes in churchyards strayed, and gazed on the 

crosses and tombstones, 
Sat by some nameless grave, and thought that perhaps 

in its bosom 
He was already at rest, and she longed to slumber 

beside him. 
Sometimes a rumor, a hearsay, an inarticulate whisper, 
Came with its airy 10 hand to point and beckon her 

forward. 700 

Sometimes she spake with those who had seen her 

beloved and known him, 
But it was long ago, in some far-off place or forgotten. 
" Gabriel Lajeunesse ! " said they ; " O, yes ! we have 

seen him. 
He was with Basil the blacksmith, and both have gone 

to the prairies ; 
Coureurs-des-Bois xx are they, and famous hunters 

and trappers," 
"Gabriel Lajeunesse!" said others; " O, yes! w T e 

have seen him. 

9. It must be understood that regular and certain means of com- 
umnication did not exist in North America at this period. The post- 
office was conducted as a private monopoly and was an expensive 
and not very trustworthy medium of exchange between the larger 
towns. In the backwoods, and outside of the British colonies, com- 
munication was possible only by means of private messenger. 

10. State the full significance of this epithet. 

11. " Rovers of the woods." The French Canadian name for those 
white adventurers who spent their lives hunting and trapping with 
the Indians. 



60 EVANGELINE 

He is a Voyageur™ in the lowlands of Louisiana." 
Then would they say : i ' Dear child ! why dream 

and wait for him longer? 
Are there not other youths as fair as Gabriel ? others 
Who have hearts as tender and true, and spirits as 

loyal ? 710 

Here is Baptiste Leblanc, the notary's 13 son, who has 

loved thee 
Many a tedious year ; come, give him thy hand and 

be happy ! 
Thou art too fair to be left to braid St. Catherine's 

tresses." 14 
Then would Evangeline answer, serenely but sadly — 

■ " I cannot ! 
Whither my heart has gone, there follows my hand, 

and not elsewhere. 
For when the heart goes before, like a lamp, and 

illumines the pathway, 
Many things are made clear, that else lie hidden in 

darkness." 
And thereupon the priest, her friend and father 

confessor, 
Said, with a smile — "O daughter! thy God thus 

speaketh within thee ! 



12. A hunter, guide and transportation agent for the fur traders. 

13. In what earlier scene lias the notary been the chief 
figure 1 

14. i. e., To remain unmarried. St. Catherine was the patron saint 
of maidens. 



EVANGELINE 61 

Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was 

wasted ; 720 

If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters, 

returning 
Back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full 

of refreshment ; 
That which the fountain sends forth returns again to 

the fountain. 15 
Patience ; accomplish thy labor ; accomplish thy work 

of affection ! 
Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance 

is godlike. 
Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till the heart 

is made godlike, 
Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more 

worthy of heaven ! " 
Cheered by the good man's words, Evangeline labored 

and waited. 
Still in her heart she heard the funeral dirge of the 

ocean, 
But with its sound there was mingled a voice that 

whispered, " Despair not ! " 730 

Thus did that poor soul wander in want and cheerless 

discomfort, 



15. l.earn Hues 730-7S7. These words are the keynote of the 
poem. Evangeline's life was not wasted even though her quest was 
unsuccessful. The perfect love which she had for Gabriel made her 
a blessing to all with whom she came in contact during her long 
journey. 



62 EVANGELINE 

Bleeding, barefooted, over the shards and thorns of 

existence. 16 
Let me essay, O Muse ! to follow the wanderer's 

footsteps ; 
Not through each devious path, each changeful year 

of existence ; 
But as a traveler follows a streamlet's course through 

the valley ; 
Far from its margin at times, and seeing the gleam of 

its water 
Here and there, in some open space, and at intervals 

only : 
Then drawing nearer its banks, through sylvan glooms 

that conceal it, 
Though he behold it not, he can hear its continuous 

murmur ; 
Happy, at length, if he find the spot where it reaches 

an outlet. 17 740 



16. The shards and thorns of existence are the " sharp " things 
of life. Things which seem to exist only to annoy. What is the 
meaning of the word "shard"! 

17. Describe the manner in -which the poet brings Canto I 
to a close. 



EVANGELINE 63 

CANTO II 
Down the Mississippi 

Introductory Note. Canto II opens with a description of the 
tropical country through which the lower Mississippi flows on 
its way to the Gulf. This description presents, in every detail, 
a strong contrast to that of Cantos I and II of Part I, and the 
effect of languor and drowsiness produced by these lines is quite 
different from the feeling of well-earned rest after toil produced 
by the corresponding lines of the earlier stanzas. 

Here the tragedy of Evangeline's story reaches its climax. 
Under the Wachita willows, Evangeline lies asleep, while the 
lover for whom she is searching passes close by her on his way 
to the hunting grounds of the West. 

It was the month of May. Far down the Beautiful 
River, 1 

Past the Ohio shore 2 and past the mouth of the Wa- 
bash, 3 

Into the golden stream of the broad and swift Mis- 
sissippi, 

Floated a cumbrous boat, that was rowed by Acadian 
boatmen. 

It was a band'of exiles; a raft, 4 as it were, from the 
shipwrecked 

Nation, scattered along the coast, now floating to- 
gether, 

Bound by the bonds of a common belief and a com- 
mon misfortune ; 

1. This is said to be tlie meaning of the word " Ohio." 

2. The shore which is now the state of Ohio. 

3. Between what is now the states of Indiana and Illinois. 

4. Carry out the metaphor in detail. 



64 EVANGELINE 

Men and women and children, who, guided by hope 
or by hearsay, 

Sought for their kith and their kin among the few- 
acred farmers 

On the Acadian coast, 5 and the prairies of fair Ope- 

lousas. 6 750 

With them Evangeline went, and her guide, the 
Father Felician. 7 

Onward, o'er sunken sands, 8 through a wilderness 
somber with forests, 

Day after day they glided adown the turbulent river ; 

Night after night, by their blazing fires, encamped on 
its borders, 

Now through rushing chutes, 9 among green islands, 
where plumelike 

Cotton-trees 10 nodded their shadowy crests, they swept 
with the current, 

Then emerged into broad lagoons, 11 where silvery sand- 
bars 



5. The Acadian plantations fronted on the Bayou Tgche, west of 
the Mississippi. 

6. Now St. Landry Parish, La., the center of the Acadian settle- 
ments. 

7. In what scenes of the story lias Father Felician already 
figured! 

8. The shifting sandbars of the Mississippi. 

9. Rapids caused by the obstruction of the channel by islands and 
sandbars. 

10. Cottonwood, a kindof poplar common along the rivers of the 
Western United States. 

11. Quiet eddies. 



EVANGELINE 65 

Lay in the stream, and along the wimpling 12 waves of 
their margin, 

Shining with snow-white plumes, large flocks of peli- 
cans waded. 

Level the landscape grew, and along the shores of 

the river, 760 

Shaded by china-trees, 13 in the midst of luxuriant 
gardens, 

Stood the houses of planters, with negro-cabins and 
dove-cotes. 

They were approaching the region where reigns per- 
petual summer, 

Where through the Golden Coast, 14 and groves of 
orange and citron, 

Sweeps with majestic curv^e the river away to the 
eastward. 

They, too, swerved from their course; 15 and, entering 
the Bayou of Plaquemine, 16 

Soon were lost in a maze of sluggish and devious 
waters, 

Which, like a network of steel, extended in every 
direction. 



12. Point out other instances of similar alliteration. State 
the effect produced hy such alliteration. What is the signifi- 
cance of this adjective I 

13. An East Indian shade tree cultivated on Southern plantations 

14. Tropical Louisiana, the Delta Region. 

15. As the river trended toward the east, the travelers turned to 
the west through one of the Bayous, which, at a high stage of water, 
form navigable channels between the Mississippi and Atchafalaya. 

16. Pronounced Plait-men. In Iberville Parish, La. 



66 EVANGELINE 

Over their heads the towering and tenebrous 17 boughs 

of the cypress 
Met in a dusky arch, and trailing mosses 18 in mid-air 770 
Waved like banners that hang on the walls of ancient 

cathedrals. 
Deathlike the silence seemed, and unbroken, save by 

the herons 
Home to their roosts in the cedar-trees returning at 

sunset, 
Or by the owl, as he greeted the moon with demoniac 

laughter. 
Lovely the moonlight was as it glanced and gleamed 

on the water, 
Gleamed on the columns of cypress and cedar sus- 
taining the arches, 
Down through whose broken vaults it fell as through 

chinks in a ruin. 
Dreamlike, and indistinct, and strange were all things 

around them ; 19 
And o'er their spirits there came a feeling of wonder 

and sadness — 
Strange forebodings of ill, unseen and that cannot be 

compassed. 780 

17. Give the derivation, meaning and significance of this 
adjective. 

18. The Spanish Moss, an epiphytic plant growing on trees in our 
Southern forests. It hangs from the branches in matted, greenish- 
gray strips, three and four feet long, and is said to resemble an old 
man's beard. (Cf. line 2.) 

19. Describe in your own words the picture of lines 
•779-T89. 



EVANGELINE 67 

As, at the tramp of a horse's hoof on the turf of the 

prairies, 
Far in advance are closed the leaves of the shrinking 

mimosa, 20 
So, at the hoof -beats of fate, with sad forebodings of 

evil , 
Shrinks and closes the heart, ere the stroke of doom 

has attained it. 21 
But Evangeline's heart was sustained by a vision, that 

faintly 
Floated before her eyes, and beckoned her on through 

the moonlight. 
It was the thought of her brain that assumed the 

shape of a phantom. 
Through those shadowy aisles had Gabriel wandered 

before her, 
And every stroke of the oar now brought him nearer 

and nearer. 
Then in his place, at the prow of the boat, rose one 

of the oarsmen, ■ 790 

And, as a signal sound, if others like them perad- 

venture 
Sailed on those gloomy and midnight streams, blew a 

blast on his bugle. 



20. The sensitive plant. The slightest touch causes the leaf to 
•curve downward and the leaflets to fold together as if shrinking from 
the contact. 

21. Describe the sensation so poetically expressed in lines 
789-794. 



68 EVANGELINE 

Wild through the dark colonnades and corridors 

leafy the blast rang, 
Breaking the seal of silence, and giving tongues to 

the forest. 
Soundless above them the banners of moss just 

stirred to the music. 
Multitudinous echoes awoke and died in the distance, 
Over the watery floor, and beneath the reverberant 

branches ; 22 
But not a voice replied ; no answer came from the 

darkness ; 
And when the echoes had ceased, like a sense of pain 

was the silence. 
Then Evangeline slept ; but the boatmen rowed 

through the midnight, 800 

Silent at times, then singing familiar Canadian boat- 
songs, 
Such as they sang of old on their own Acadian rivers. 
And through the night were heard the mysterious 

sounds of the desert, 
Far off, indistinct, as of wave or wind in the forest, 
Mixed with the whoop of the crane and the roar of 

the grim alligator. 
Thus ere another noon they emerged from those 

shades ; and before them 
Lay, in the golden sun, the lakes of the Atchafalaya. 23 



22. Paraphrase line 807. 

23. The largest is Grand Lake, into the lower end of which the 
Bayou Teche empties. 



EVANGELINE 69 

Water-lilies in myriads rocked on the slight undula- 
tions 

Aiade by the passing oars, and, resplendent in beauty, 
the lotus 2i 

Lifted her golden crown above the heads of the boat- 
men. . 810 

Faint was the air with the odorous breath of mag- 
nolia blossoms, 

And with the heat of noon ; and numberless sylvan 25 
islands, 

Fragrant and thickly embowered with blossoming 
hedges of roses, 

Near to whose shores they glided along, invited to 
slumber. 

Soon by the fairest of these their weary oars were 
suspended. 

Under the boughs of Wachita willows, that grew by 
the margin, 

Safely their boat was moored ; and scattered about on 
the greensward, 26 

Tired with their midnight toil, the weary travelers 
slumbered. 



24. A yellow water-lily, two feet or more in diameter, found in 
Southern lakes. The huge golden blossoms are poised on stout stems 
rising three feet above the water. 

25. Give the derivation, meaning and. significance of* this 
adjective. 

26. Give the derivation and meaning of this word. 



70 EVANGELINE 

Over them vast and high extended the cope 27 of a 
cedar. 

Swinging from its great arms, the trumpet-flower 2s 

and the grape-vine , 820 

Hung their ladder of ropes aloft like the ladder of 
Jacob, 

On whose pendulous 29 stairs the angels ascending, de- 
scending, 30 

Were the swift humming-birds, that flitted from 
blossom to blossom. 

Such was the vision Evangeline saw as she slumbered 
beneath it. 

Filled was her heart with love, and the dawn of an 
opening heaven 

Lighted her soul in sleep with the glory of regions 
celestial. 

Nearer and ever nearer, among the numberless islands, 

Darted a light, swift boat, that sped away o'er the 
water, 

Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters 
and trappers. 

Northward its prow T was turned, to the land of the 

bison and beaver. . 830 

At the helm sat a youth, with countenance thought- 
ful and careworn. 

27. Anything spread or extended over the head. What is the 
specific meaning of the word " cope"? 

28. A vine bearing reddish-yellow flowers. 

29. What is the exact significance of this adjective 1 

30. Carry out the details of this figure. 



EVANGELINE 71 

Dark and neglected locks overshadowed his brow, 

and a sadness 
Somewhat beyond his years on his face was legibly 

written. 
Gabriel was it, who, weary with waiting, unhappy 

and restless, 
Sought in the Western wilds oblivion of self and of 

sorrow. 
Swiftly they glided along, close under the lee of the 

island, 
But by the opposite bank, and behind a screen of 

palmettos, 
So that they saw not the boat, where it lay concealed 

in the willows, 
And undisturbed by the dash of their oars, and un- 
seen, were the sleepers ; 
Angel of God was there none to awaken the slumber- 
ing maiden. 31 840 
Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of a cloud 

on the prairie. 
After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died 

in the distance, 
As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke, and the 

maiden 
Said with a sigh to the friendly priest — " O Father 

Felician ! 
Something says in my heart that near me Gabriel 

wanders. 

31. Learn Outline Study, IVote 3. 



72 EVANGELINE 

Is it a foolish dream, an idle vague superstition? 

Or has an angel passed, and revealed the truth to my 

spirit ? " 
Then, with a blush, she added — " Alas for my credu- 
lous fancy ! 
Unto ears like thine such words as these have no 

meaning." 32 
But made answer the reverend man, and he smiled 

as he answered — 850 

" Daughter, thy words are not idle; nor are they to 

me without meaning. 
Feeling is deep and still ; and the word that floats 

on the surface 
Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays where the anchor 

is hidden. 33 
Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world 

calls illusions. 
Gabriel truly is near thee ; for not far away to the 

southward, 
On the banks of the Teche 34 are the towns of St. 

Maur and St. Martin. 35 
There the long-- wandering; bride shall be given again 

to her bridegroom, 
There the long-absent pastor regain his flock and his 

sheepfold. 

32. i. e. As a Priest, Father Felician might not he ahle to sympa- 
thize with Evangeline's feelings. 

33. Explain the poet's meaning in lines 862, S63. 

34. Pronounced Tesh. The river which drains Central Louisiana. 

35. The Acadian towns in what is now the Parish of St. Martin. 



EVANGELINE 73 

Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and forests of 

fruit-trees ; 
Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of 

heavens 8G0 

Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of 

the forest. 
They who dwell there have named it the Eden of 

Louisiana." 
And with these words of cheer they arose and con- 
tinued their journey. 
Softly the evening came. The sun from the western 

horizon 
Like a magician extended his golden wand o'er the 

landscape ; 
Twinkling vapors arose ; and sky and water and 

forest 
Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and 

mingled together. 
Hanging between two skies, a cloud with edges of 

silver, 
Floated the boat, with its dripping oars, on the mo- 
tionless water. 
Filled was Evangeline's heart with inexpressible 

sweetness. 8T0 

Touched by the magic spell, the sacred fountains of 

feeling 
Glowed with the light of love, as the skies and waters 

around her. 



74 EVANGELINE 

Then from a neighboring thicket the mocking-bird, 

wildest of singers, 
Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung o'er the 

water, 
Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious 

music, 
That the whole air and the woods and the waves 

seemed silent to listen. 
Plaintive at first were the tones and sad ; then soar- 
ing to madness 
Seemed they to follow or guide the revel of frenzied 

Bacchantes. 36 
Single notes were then heard, in sorrowful, low 

lamentation ; 
Till, having gathered them all, he flung them abroad 

in derision, 880 

As w T hen, after a storm, a gust of wind through the 

tree-tops 
Shakes down the rattling rain in a crystal shower on 

the branches. 37 
With such a prelude as this, and hearts that throbbed 

with emotion, 
Slowly they entered the Teche, where it flows through* 

the green Opelousas, 



36. Among the Greeks, Bacchus, the god of wine, was worshiped 
with rites in which the participants, mostly women, excited them- 
selves to the point of insanity. 

37. Wliat idea as to the song of the Mocking Bird does this 
simile give yon! 



EVANGELINE 75 

And through the amber 38 air, above the crest of the 
woodland, 

Saw the column of smoke that arose from a neighbor- 
ing dwelling ; 

Sounds of a horn they heard, and the distant lowing 
of cattle. 39 



38. What idea does this adjective convey to your mind ! 

39. Iiearn Outline Study, B, III, 2, a, <1>-c4). 
Suggestion.— After reading Canto II, write a paper on "Nature in 

the Tropics." 



EVANGELINE 



Canto III. Basil the Herdsman 

Introductory Note. In Canto III, the reader meets again 
Basil the Blacksmith, now become Basil the Herdsman, happy 
in his new surroundings but still cherishing a bitter grudge 
against the English King who had driven him away from his 
home in Acadie. 

Basil tells Evangeline that Gabriel has started that very day 
for the West, but, as he intends to stop at Adayes, and as the 
current is against him, he can be overtaken easily ; and he gives 
to Evangeline the comforting assurance that Gabriel's thoughts 
are ever of her. 

On the morrow, accompanied by Basil, Father Felician and 
Evangeline start again upon their quest, and reach Adayes only 
to find that Gabriel has already left the village, and has taken 
the road of the prairie. 

Near to the bank of the river, o'ershadowed by oaks, 
from whose branches 

Garlands of Spanish moss 1 and of mystic mistletoe 
flaunted, 

Such as the Druids cut down with golden hatchets at 

Yule-tide, 2 890 

Stood, secluded and still, the house of the herdsman. 
A garden 

Girded it round about w r ith a belt of luxuriant blos- 
soms, 

1. See footnote 18, Canto II. 

2. In the religion of the Druids, the mistletoe was regarded with 
the utmost veneration. On a certain day in each year, the ancient 
Britons, accompanied by their priests, the Druids, sallied forth with 
great pomp and rejoicings to gather this mystic parasite. When the 
oak was reached on which the mistletoe grew, the chief Druid, 
clothed in white, ascended and with a golden knife cut the sacred 
plant, which was caught by another priest in the folds of his robe. 



EVANGELINE 77 

Filling the air with fragrance. The house itself was 

of timbers 
Hewn from the cypress-tree, and carefully fitted to- 
gether. 
Large and low was the roof ; and on slender columns 

supported, 
Rose-wreathed, vine-encircled, a broad and spacious 

veranda , 
Haunt of the humming-bird and the bee, extended 

around it 
At each end of the house, amid the flowers of the 

garden, 
Stationed the dove-cotes were, as love's perpetual 

symbol , 
Scenes of endless wooing, and endless contentions of 

rivals. 900 

Silence reigned o'er the place. The line of shadow 

and sunshine 
Ran near the tops of the trees ; but the house itself 

was in shadow, 
And from its chimney-top, ascending and slowly ex- 
panding 
Into the evening air, a thin blue column of smoke 

rose. 
In the rear of the house, from the garden gate, ran a 

pathway 
Through the great groves of oak to the skirts of the 

limitless prairie, 



78 EVANGELINE 

Into whose sea of flowers the sun was slowly descend- 
ing. 

Full in his track of light, like ships with shadowy 
canvas 

Hanging loose from their spars in a motionless calm 
in the tropics, 

Stood a cluster of trees, with tangled cordage of 
grape ' 



rapevines. 910 



Just where the woodlands met the flowery surf of the 

prairie, 
Mounted upon his horse, with Spanish saddle and 

stirrups, 
Sat a herdsman, arrayed in gaiters and doublet of 

deerskin. 
Broad and brown was the face that from under the 

Spanish sombrero 
Gazed on the peaceful scene, with the lordly look of 

its master. 
Round about him were numberless herds of kine, that 

were grazing 
Quietly in the meadows, and breathing the vapory 

freshness 
That uprose from the river, and spread itself over 

the landscape. 
Slowly lifting the horn that hung at his side, and 

expanding 
Fully his broad, deep chest, he blew a blast, that 

resounded 920 



EVANGELINE 79 

Wildly and sweet and far, through the still damp air 

of the evening. 
Suddenly out of the grass the long white horns of the 

cattle 
Rose like flakes of foam on the adverse currents of 

ocean. 
Silent a moment they gazed, then bellowing rushed 

o'er the prairie, 
And the whole mass became a cloud, a shade in the 

distance. 3 
Then, as the herdsman turned to the house, through 

the gate of the garden 
Saw he the forms of the priest and the maiden ad- 
vancing to meet him. 
Suddenly down from his horse he sprang in amaze- 
ment, and forward 
Rushed with extended arms and exclamations of 

wonder ; 
When they beheld his face, they recognized Basil the 

Blacksmith. . 930 

Hearty his welcome was, as he led his guests to the 

garden. 
There in an arbor of roses with endless question and 

answer 
Gave they vent to their hearts, and renewed their 

friendly embraces, 
Laughing and weeping by turns, or sitting silent and 

thoughtful. 

3. Study Examination Question No. 13. 



80 EVANGELINE 

Thoughtful, for Gabriel came not; and now dark 

doubts and misgivings 
Stole o'er the maiden's heart ; and Basil, somewhat 

embarrassed, 
Broke the silence and said — "If you come by the 

Atchafalaya, 
How have you nowhere encountered my Gabriel's 

boat on the bayous ? " 
Over Evangeline's face at the words of Basil a shade 

passed. 
Tears came into her eyes, and she said, with a trem- 
ulous accent — 940 
"Gone? is Gabriel gone?" and, concealing her face 

on his shoulder, 
All her o'erburdened heart gave way, and she wept 

and lamented. 
Then the good Basil said — and his voice grew blithe 

as he said it — 
"Be of good cheer, my child; it is only to-day he 

departed. 
Foolish boy ! he has left me alone with my herds and 

my horses. 
Moody and restless grown, and tried and troubled, 

his spirit 
Could no longer endure the calm of this quiet exist- 
ence. 
Thinking ever of thee, uncertain and sorrowful ever, 
Ever silent, or speaking only of thee and his troubles, 



EVANGELINE 81 

He at length had become so tedious to men and to 

maidens, 950 

Tedious even to me, that at length I bethought me 
and sent him 

Unto the town of Adayes 4 to trade for mules with the 
Spaniards. 

Thence he will follow the Indian trails to the Ozark 
Mountains, 

Hunting for furs in the forests, on rivers trapping 
the beaver. 

Therefore be of good cheer ; we will follow the fugi- 
tive lover ; 

He is not far on his 'way, and the Fates and the 
streams are against him. 

Up and away to-morrow, and through the red dew 
of the morning 

We will follow him fast and bring him back to his 
prison." 

Then glad voices were heard, and up from the banks 

of the river, 
Borne aloft on his comrades' arms, came Michael the 

fiddler. 6 930 



4. The most northerly settlement of the Spaniards of Texas. Some 
ruins and the surviving name of "Spanish Lake "mark the spot, a 
few miles west of Natchitoches, La. 

5. In Northwestern Arkansas. 

6. In what earlier scene has Michael the tiddler been the 
chief personage I 



82 EVANGELINE 

Long under Basil's roof had he lived like a god on 

Olympus, 7 
Having no other care than dispensing music to 

mortals, 
Far renowned was he for his silver locks and his 

fiddle. 
"Long live Michael," they cried, "our brave Aca- 
dian minstrel ! " 
As they bore him aloft in triumphal procession ; and 

straighway 
Father Felician advanced with Evangeline, greeting 

the old man 
Kindly and oft, and recalling the past, while Basil, 

enraptured, 
Hailed with hilarious joy his old companions and 

gossips, 
Laughing loud and long, and embracing mothers and 

daughters. 
Much they marveled to see the wealth of the ci-de- 
vant 8 blacksmith, 970 
All his domains and his herds, and his patriarchal 

demeanor ; 
Much they marveled to hear his tales of the soil and 

the climate, 
And of the prairies, whose numberless herds were his 

who would take them ; 



7. The fabled home of the gods of Greek mythology. 

8. Former. From what language is this word borrowed 1 
Why does Ijongfellow use it here, instead of the correspond- 
ing English word! 



EVANGELINE 83 

Each one thought in his heart that he, too, would 

go and do likewise. 
Thus they ascended the steps, and, crossing the airy 

veranda, 
Entered the hall of the house, where already the 

supper of Basil 
Waited his late return ; and they rested and feasted 

together. 

Over the joyous feast the sudden darkness descended. 

All was silent without, and illuming the landscape 
with silver, 

Fair rose the dewy moon and the myriad stars ; but 

within doors, 9&0 

Brighter than these, shone the faces of friends in the 
glimmering lamplight. 

Then from his station aloft, at the head of the table, 
the herdsman 

Poured forth his heart and his wine together in end- 
less profusion. 

Lighting his pipe, that was filled with sweet Natchi- 
toches tobacco. 9 

Thus he spake to his guests, who listened, and smiled 
as they listened : 



9. Virginia tobacco obtained from tbe traders of Natchitoches. 
lYatchitoches bas bere four syllables although tbe usual pronuncia- 
tion is lYak-i-tosli. It was an old town in Nortbwestern Louisiana 
where American backwoodsmen, French from Louisiana and 
Canada, and Spaniards from Texas, met to trade, drink and fight. 



84 E VANGELINE 

"Welcome once more, my friends, who so long have 
been friendless and homeless, 

Welcome once more to a home, that is better per- 
chance than the old one ! 

Here no hungry winter congeals our blood like the 
rivers ; 

Here no stony ground provokes the wrath of the 
farmer. 

Smoothly the plowshare runs through the soil as a 

keel through the water. "° 

All the year round the orange-groves are in blossom ; 
and grass grows 

More in a single night than a whole Canadian sum- 
mer. 

Here, too, numberless herds run wild and unclaimed 
in the prairies ; 

Here, too, lands may be had for the asking, and for- 
ests of timber 

With a few blows of the axe are hewn and framed 
into houses. 

After your houses are built, and your fields are yellow 
with harvests, 

No King George of England shall drive you away 
from your homesteads, 

Burning your dwellings and barns, and stealing your 
farms and your cattle." 

Speaking these words, he blew a wrathful cloud from 
his nostrils, 



EVANGELINE 85 

And his huge, brawny hand came thundering down 

on the table, 100 ° 

So that the guests all started ; and Father Felician, 

astounded, 
Suddenly paused, with a pinch of snuff half-way to 

his nostrils. 
But the brave Basil resumed, and his words were 

milder and gayer — 
"Only beware of the fever, my friends, beware of 

the fever ! 
For it is not like that of our cold Acadian climate, 
Cured by wearing a spider hung round one's neck in 

a nutshell ! " 10 
Then there were voices heard at the door, and foot- 
steps approaching 
Sounded upon the stairs and the floor of the breezy 

veranda. 
It was the neighboring Creoles 11 and small Acadian 

planters, 
Who had been summoned all to the house of Basil 

the Herdsman. l01 ° 

Merry the meeting was of ancient comrades and 

neighbors ; 
Friend clasped friend in his arms ; and they who 

before were as strangers, 



10. In what part of the poem has reference been made to 
this superstition! 

11. Any native of Louisiana of French or Spanish descent. 



86 EVANGELINE 

Meeting in exile, became straightway as friends to 

each other, 
Drawn by the gentle bond of a common country 

together. 
But in the neighboring hall a strain of music, pro- 
ceeding 
From the accordant strings of Michael's melodious 

fiddle, 
Broke up all further speech. Away, like children 

delighted, 
All things forgotten beside, they gave themselves to 

the maddening 
Whirl of the dizzy dance, as it swept and swayed to 

the music, 
Dreamlike, with beaming eyes and the rush of flut- 
tering garments. • 102 ° 
Meanwhile, apart, at the head of the hall, the priest 

and the herdsman 
Sat, conversing together of past and present and 

future ; 
While Evangeline stood like one entranced, for within 

her 
Olden memories rose, and loud in the midst of the 

music 
Heard she the sound of the sea, and an irrepressible 

sadness 
Came o'er her heart, and unseen she stole forth into 

the garden. 



EVANGELINE 87 

Beautiful was the night. Behind the black wall of 

the forest, 
Tipping its summit with silver, arose the moon. On 

the river 
Fell here and there through the branches a tremulous 

gleam of the moonlight, 
Like the sweet thoughts of love on a darkened and 

devious spirit. 1030 

Nearer and round about her, the manifold flowers of 

the garden 
Poured out their souls in odors, that were their 

prayers and confessions 
Unto the night, as it went its way, like a silent Car- 
thusian. 12 
Fuller of fragrance than they, and as heavy with 

shadows and night-dews, 
Hung the heart of the maiden. The calm and the 

magical moonlight 
Seemed to inundate her soul with indefinable longings, 
As, through the garden gate, beneath the brown shade 

of the oak-trees, 
Passed she along the path to the edge of the measure- 
less prairie. 
Silent it lay, with a silvery haze upon it, and the 

fire-flies 
Gleaming and floating away in mingled and infinite 

numbers. 104,) 

12. One of an order of monks whose rule enforced unbroken silence 
during the greater part of the day. 



88 EVANGELINE 

Over her head the stars, the thoughts of God in the 

heavens, 13 
Shone on the eyes, of man, who had ceased to marvel 

and worship, 
Save when a blazing comet was seen on the walls of 

that temple, 
As if a hand had appeared and written upon them, 

"Upharsin." 14 
And the soul of the maiden, between the stars and the 

fire-flies, 
Wandered alone, and she cried — " O Gabriel ! O my 

beloved ! 
Art thou so near unto me, and yet I cannot behold 

thee ? 
Art thou so near unto me, and yet thy voice does not 

reach me? 
Ah ! how often thy feet have trod this path to the 

prairie ! 
Ah ! how often thine eyes have looked on the wood- 
lands around me ! 1050 
Ah ! how often beneath this oak, returning from labor 
Thou hast lain down to rest, and to dream of me in 

thy slumbers. 
When shall these eyes behold, these arms be folded 

about thee? " 



13. By what oilier metaphor have the stars been described 
in this poem 1 

14. The warning message written in fire on the wall at Belshazzar's 
feast. (Daniel v. 25.) 



EVANGELINE 89 

Loud and sudden and near the note of a whippoorwill 

sounded 
Like a flute in the woods ; and anon, through the 

neighboring thickets, 
Farther and farther away it floated and dropped into 

silence. 
"Patience!" whispered the oaks from oracular 

caverns of darkness ; 
And, from the moonlit meadow, a sigh responded, 

" To-morrow ! " 

Bright rose the sun next day ; and all the flowers of 

the garden 
Bathed his shining feet with their tears, and anointed 

his tresses 1060 

With the delicious balm that they bore in their vases 

of crystal. 
"Farewell!" said the priest, as he stood at the 

shadowy threshold ; 
" See that you bring us the Prodigal Son from his 

fasting and famine, 
And, too, the Foolish Virgin, who slept when the 

bridegroom was coming." 
"Farewell!" answered the maiden, and, smiling, 

with Basil descended 
Down to the river's brink, where the boatmen already 

were waiting. 
Thus beginning their journey with morning, and sun- 
shine and gladness, 



90 EVANGELINE 

Swiftly they followed the flight of him who was 

speeding before them, 
Blown by the blast of fate like a dead leaf over the 

desert. 
Not that day, nor the next, nor yet the day that 

succeeded, 1070 

Found they trace of his course, in lake or forest or 

river, 
Nor, after many days, had they found him ; but vague 

and uncertain 
Rumors alone were their guides through a wild and 

desolate country, 
Till, at the little inn of the Spanish town of Adayes, 
Weary and worn, they alighted, and learned from the 

garrulous landlord, 
That on the day before, with horses and guides and 

companions, 
Gabriel left the village, and took the road of the 

prairies. 



EVANGELINE 91 



Canto IV. The Indian Woman 

Introductory Note. The function of this canto is to impress 
the reader with the hopelessness of Evangeline's quest. The 
means employed by the poet to accomplish this result is the In- 
dian woman whose tales of the bridegroom of snow and of the 
spirit bridegroom sought in vain by his mortal bride inspire 
Evangeline with the conviction that she, too, is pursuing a 
phantom lover. 

Far in the West 1 there lies a desert land, where the 
mountains 

Lift, through perpetual snows, their lofty and lumi- 
nous summits. 

Down from their jagged, deep ravines, where the 

gorge, like a gateway, 1080 

Opens a passage rude to the wheels of the emigrant's 
wagon, 

Westward the Oregon 2 flows and the Walleway 3 and 
Owyhee. 4 

Eastward, with devious course, among the Wind- 
river Mountains, 5 

Through the Sweetwater Valley 6 precipitate leaps the 
Nebraska ; 7 

1. The mountain region of Colorado and Wyoming, now one of the 
most flourishing sections of the United States and famed for its 
mines, climate and scenery. In 1348 it was known only as the scene 
of the wildest adventures of the fur-trappers. 

2. The Columbia Eiver. 

3. The main stream of the Snake River. 

4. The largest tributary of the Snake River from the South. 

5. In Western Wyoming. 

6. In Central Wyoming. The Sweetwater River is one of the 
sources of the North Fork of the Platte, or Nebraska River. 

7. The Platte River. 



92 E VANGELINE 

And to the south, from Fontaine-qui-bout 8 and the 

Spanish sierras, 9 
Fretted with sands and rocks,- and swept by the wind 

of the desert, 
Numberless torrents, 10 with ceaseless sound, descend 

to the ocean, 
Like the great chords of a harp, in loud and solemn 

vibrations. 11 
Spreading between these streams are the wondrous, 

beautiful prairies, 1090 

Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sun- 
shine, 
Bright with luxuriant clusters of roses and purple 

amorphas. 12 
Over them wander the buffalo herds, and the elk and 

the roebuck ; 
Over them wander the wolves, and herds of riderless 

horses ; 
Fires that blast and blight, and winds that are weary 

with travel ; 
Over them wander the scattered tribes of IshmaePs 

children, 13 



8. Colorado Springs. 

9* Spanish peaks in Southern Colorado. 

10. Tributaries of the Arkansas and Rio Grande Rivers 

11. What does this phrase modify? 

12. The False-Indigo. A small shrub bearing purple-blue flowers. 

13. It was prophesied of the children of Ishmael, son of Abra- 
ham, that their hand should be against every man and every man's 
hand should be against them. This was the exact condition in which 
the Indians of the West were living in 1848. 



EVANGELINE 93 

Staining the desert with blood ; and above their ter- 
rible war-trails 

Circles and sails aloft, on pinions majestic, the vul- 
ture, * 

Like the implacable soul of a chieftain slaughtered in 
battle, 

By invisible stairs ascending and scaling the heavens. 

Here and there rise smokes from the camps of these 

savage marauders ; 110 ° 

Here and there rise groves from the margins of swift- 
running rivers ; 

And the grim, taciturn bear, the anchorite monk of 
the desert, 

Climbs down their dark ravines to dig for roots by 
the brookside, 

And over all is the sky, the clear and crystalline 
heaven, 

Like the protecting hand of God inverted above them. 

Into this wonderful land, at the base of the Ozark 

Mountains, 
Gabriel far had entered, with hunters and trappers 

behind him. 
Day after day, with their Indian guides, the maiden 

and Basil 
Followed his flying steps, and thought each day to 

o'ertake him. 
Sometimes they saw, or thought they saw, the smoke 

of his camp-fire m0 



94 E VANG E LINE 

Rise in the morning air from the distant plain ; but 

at nightfall, 
When they had reached the place, they found only 

embers and ashes. 
And, though their hearts were sad at times and their 

bodies were weary, 
Hope still guided them on, as the magic Fata Morgana 14 
Showed them her lakes of light, that retreated and 

vanished before them. 

Once, as they sat by their evening fire, there silently 

entered 
Into the little camp an Indian woman, whose features 
Wore deep traces of sorrow, and patience as great as 

her sorrow. 
She was a Shawnee woman returning home to her 

people, 
From the far-off hunting grounds of the cruel Ca- 

manches, ]1 ~° 

Where her Canadian husband, a Coureur-des-Bois, 15 

had been murdered. 
Touched were their hearts at her story, and warmest 

and friendliest welcome 
Gaye they, with w r ords of cheer, and she sat and 

feasted among them 



14. (The illusion of the Fairy Morgan). The well-known phe- 
nomenon of the mirage is so called in Italy and Sicily. 

15. Define this word from an earlier note. 



EVANGELINE 95 

On the buffalo meat and the venison cooked on the 

embers. 
But when their meal was done, and Basil and all 

his companions, 
Worn with the long day's march and the chase of the 

deer and the bison, 
Stretched themselves on the ground, and slept where 

the quivering firelight 
Flashed on their swarthy cheeks, and their forms 

wrapped up in their blankets, 
Then at the door of Evangeline's tent she sat and 

repeated 
Slowly, with soft, low voice, and the charm of her 

Indian accent, 113 ° 

All the tale of her love, with its pleasures, and pains, 

and reverses. 
Much Evangeline wept at the tale, and to know that 

another 
Hapless heart like her own had loved and had been 

disappointed. 
Moved to the depths of her soul by pity and woman's 

compassion, 
Yet in her sorrow pleased that one who had suffered 

was near her, 
She in turn related her love and all its disasters. 
Mute with wonder the Shawnee sat, and when she 

had ended 
Still was mute ; but at length, as if a mysterious 

horror 



96 EVANGELINE 

Passed through her brain, she spake, and repeated 

the tale of the Mowis ; 16 
Mowis, the bridegroom of snow, who won and wedded 

a maiden, 114 ° 

But, when the morning came, arose and passed from 

the wigwam, 
Fading and melting away and dissolving into the sun- 
shine, 
Till she beheld him no more, though she followed far 

into the forest. 
Then, in those sweet, low tones, that seem like a 

weird incantation, 
Told she the tale of the fair Lilinau, 17 who was wooed 

by a phantom, 
That, through the pines o'er her father's lodge, in the 

hush of the twilight, 
Breathed like the evening wind, and whispered love 

to the maiden, 
Till she followed his green and waving plume through 

the forest, 
And never more returned, nor was seen again by her 

people. 
Silent with wonder and strange surprise Evangeline 

listened 1150 



36. This story is recorded in the Indian Eesearches of Schoolcraft; 
hut the idea of the spirit bridegroom sought in vain hy his mortal 
bride is common to the folk lore of all races. The classical story of 
Cupid and Psyche is an example. 

17. See Note 16 above. 



EVANGELINE 97 

To the soft flow of her magical words, till the region 

around her 
Seemed like enchanted ground, and her swarthy 

guest the enchantress. 
Slowly over the tops of the Ozark Mountains the 

moon rose, 
Lighting the little tent, and with a mysterious splendor 
Touching the somber leaves, and embracing and fill- 
ing the woodland. 
With a delicious sound the brook rushed by, and the 

branches 
Swayed and sighed overhead in scarcely audible 

whispers. 
Filled with the thoughts of love was Evangeline's 

heart, but a secret, 
Subtile sense crept in of pain and indefinite terror, 
As the cold, poisonous snake creeps into the nest of 

the swallow. " 1160 

It was no earthly fear. A breath from the region of 

spirits 
Seemed to float in the air of night ; and she felt for 

a moment 
That, like the Indian maid, she, too, was pursuing a 

phantom. 
And with this thought she slept, and the fear and 

the phantom had vanished. 18 



18. Study Examination Questions, No. 11. 



98 EVANGELINE 

Early upon the morrow the march was resumed ; and 

the Shawnee 
Said, as they journeyed along — " On the western 

slope of these mountains 
Dwells in his little village the Black Robe chief of 

the Mission. 19 
Much he teaches the people, and tells them of Mary 

and Jesus ; 
Loud laugh their hearts with joy, and weep with pain, 

as they hear him." 
Then, with a sudden and secret emotion, Evangeline 

answered— 1170 

kt Let us go to the Mission, for there good tidings 

await us ! " 
Thither they turned their steeds ; and behind a spur 

of the mountains, 
Just as the sun went down, they heard a murmur of 

voices, 
And in a meadow green and broad, by the bank of a 

river, 
Saw the tents of the Christians, the tents of the Jesuit 

Mission. 
Under a towering oak, that stood in the midst of the 

village, 

19. The usual name among the Western Indians for the Roman 
Catholic missionaries who visited them. From the beginning of 
French settlement in America, the Roman Catholic religious orders 
sought to convert the Indians to Christianity by means of mission- 
aries who visited their tribes and lived their savage life. These 
missionaries, particularly those belonging to the Society of Jesus, 
were everywhere the first European explorers of the Western 
wilderness. 



EVANGELINE 99 

Knelt the Black Robe chief with his children. A 
crucifix fastened 

High on the trunk of the tree, and overshadowed by 
grape-vines, 

Looked with its agonized face on the multitude kneel- 
ing beneath it. 

This was their rural chapel. Aloft, through the 

intricate arches 1180 

Of its aerial roof, arose the chant of their vespers, 

Mingling its notes with the soft susurrus 20 and sighs 
of the branches. 

Silent, with heads uncovered, the travelers, nearer 
approaching, 

Knelt on the swarded 21 floor, and joined in the evening- 
devotions. 

But when the service was done, and the benediction 
had fallen 

Forth from the hands of the priest, like seed from the 
hands of the sower, 

Slowly the reverend man advanced to the strangers, 
and bade them 

Welcome ; and when they replied, he smiled with 
benignant expression, 

Hearing the homelike sounds of his mother tongue in 
the forest, 

And with words of kindness conducted them into his 



20. Whispers. What kind of a word is this! 

21. Covered with turf. 



100 EVANGELINE 

There upon mats and skins they reposed, and on 

cakes of the maize-ear 
Feasted, and slaked their thirst from the water-gourd 

of the teacher. 
Soon was their story told ; and the priest with solem- 
nity answered : 
"Not six suns have risen and set since Gabriel, 

seated 
On this mat by my side, where now the maiden 

reposes, 
Told me this same sad tale ; then arose and continued 

his journey ! " 
Soft was the voice of the priest, and he spake with 

an accent of kindness ; 
But on Evangeline's heart fell his words as in winter 

the snowflakes 
Fall into some lone nest from which the birds have 

departed. 22 
" Far to the north he has gone," continued the priest ; 

" but in autumn, Y ~ m 

When the chase is done, will return again to the 

Mission." 
Then Evangeline said, and her voice was meek and 

submissive — 
"Let me remain with thee, for my soul is sad and 

afflicted." 



22. Describe the sensation so poetically designated in lines 
1208-12091 



EVANGELINE 101 

So seemed it wise and well unto all ; and betimes on 

the morrow, 
Mounting his Mexican steed, with his Indian guides 

and companions, 
Homeward Basil returned, and Evangeline stayed at 

the Mission. 



Slowly, slowly, slowly the days succeeded each other — 
Days and weeks and months ; and the fields of maize 

that were springing 
Green from the ground when a stranger she came, 

now waving above her, 
Lifted their slender shafts, with leaves interlacing, and 

forming 121 ° 

Cloisters for mendicant crows and granaries pillaged 

by squirrels. 
Then in the golden weather the maize was husked, 

and the maidens 
Blushed at each blood-red ear, for that betokened a 

lover, 23 
But at the crooked laughed, and called it a thief in 

the corn-field. 
Even the blood-red ear to Evangeline brought not her 

lover. 
u Patience ! " the priest would say ; " have faith, and 

thy prayer will be answered ! 



23. See Outline Study, Note 14. 



102 EVANGELINE 

Look at this delicate plant that lifts its head from the 

meadow, 
See how its leaves all point to the north, as true as 

the magnet ; 
It is the compass-flower, 24 that the finger of God has 

suspended 
Here on its fragile stalk, to direct the traveler's 

journey ]22 ° 

Over the sea-like, pathless, limitless waste of the 

desert. 
Such in the soul of man is faith. The blossoms of 

passion, 
Gay and luxuriant flowers, are brighter and fuller of 

fragrance, 
But they beguile us, and lead us astray, and their odor 

is deadly. 
Only this humble plant can guide us here, and here- 

after 
Crown us with asphodel flowers, that are wet with 

the dews of nepenthe." 25 



24. A large plant growing on the prairies, whose leaves are said 
to point north and south. It is said that hunters, lost on the prairies 
in the night, can get their bearings hy feeling the edges of the leaves. 
It is not a delicate plant, nor does its yellow flower grow on a 
fragile stalk. 

25. Asphodel flowers. In the Greek mythology, the bloom of the 
Elysian Fields, the abode of the righteous dead. IVepeiithe, in the 
same mythology, was the draught of release from care and pain. 



EVANGELINE 103 

So came the autumn, and passed, and the winter — 

yet Gabriel came not ; 
Blossomed the opening spring, and the notes of the 

robin and bluebird 
Sounded sweet upon wold and in wood, yet Gabriel 

came not. 
But on the breath of the summer winds a rumor was 

wafted 12 30 

Sweeter than song of bird, or hue or odor of blossom. 
Far to the north and east, it said, in the Michigan 

forests, 
Gabriel had his lodge by the banks of the Saginaw 

river. 26 
And, with returning guides, that sought the lakes of 

St. Lawrence, 27 
Saying a sad farewell, Evangeline went from the 

Mission. 
When over weary ways, by long and perilous marches, 
She had attained at length the depths of the Michigan 

forests, 
Found she the hunter's lodge deserted and fallen to 

ruin ! 

Thus did the long sad years glide on, and in seasons 

and places 
Divers and distant far was seen the wandering 

maiden ; 1240 

26. A river of Central Michigan flowing into Lake Huron. 
Suggestion.— Paraphrase and amplify lines 1226-1236. 

27. The Great Lakes, of which the St. Lawrence is the final outlet. 



1 04 E VAN GE LINE 

Now in the tents of grace of the meek 28 Moravian 

Missions, 29 
Now in the noisy camps and the battle-fields of the 

army, 30 
Now in secluded hamlets, in towns and populous 

cities, 
Like a phantom she came, and passed away unre- 

membered. 
Fair was she and young, when in hope began the long 

journey ; 
Faded was she and old, when in disappointment it 

ended. 
Each succeeding year stole something away from her 

beauty, 
Leaving behind it, broader and deeper, the gloom and 

the shadow. 
Then there appeared and spread faint streaks of gray 

o'er her forehead, 
Dawn of another life, that broke o'er her earthly 

horizon, 125 ° 

As in the eastern sky the first faint streaks of the 

morning. 31 



28. What is the significance of the epithet I 

29. The Moravians or United Brethren, a German Protestant Epis- 
copal sect, made strenuous efforts to convert the Indians by forming 
settled communities where the savages might be instructed in the 
conditions of civilized life. 

30. The war between the English and the Canadian French was in 
progress during the action of this story. 

31. At what point in the story does Evangeline reach the 
conclusion that her quest is hopeless! 



EVANGELINE 105 



Canto V. The Finding of Gabriel 

Introductory Note. Evangeline, young and fair no longer, 
has abandoned her fruitless search. Her life of trial and 
sorrow has taught her that all that counts in this world is 
patie?tce, abftegation of self and devotion to others ; and, having 
learned this lesson, she becomes a Sister of Mercy in the city 
of Philadelphia. 

In an almshouse, during a frightful pestilence, Evangeline 
finds her lover ; and the story ends amid scenes which form a 
most dramatic contrast to those among which the simple tale 
opened. 

In that delightful land which is washed by the Dela- 
ware's waters, 1 

Guarding in sylvan shades the name of Penn the 
apostle, 2 

Stands on the banks of its beautiful stream the city 
he founded. 3 

There all the air is balm, and the peach is the emblem 
of beauty, 

And the streets still re-echo the names of the trees of 
the forest, 4 

As if they fain would appease the Dryads 5 whose 
haunts they molested. 

1. Pennsylvania. 

2. Identify "Penn." Relate the circumstances under which 
Pennsylvania was founded. Why is Penn called " Penn the 
apostle"! 

3. Philadelphia. 

4. Paraphrase the line. 

5. Wood nymphs who make their homes in the trees and whose life 
is the life of the tree. 



106 EVANGELINE 

There from the troubled sea had Evangeline landed, 
an exile, 

Finding among the children of Penn a home and a 
country. 

There old Rene Leblanc 6 had died ; and when he de- 
parted, • !260 

Saw at his side only one of all his hundred descend- 
ants. 

Something at least there was in the friendly streets 
of the city, 

Something that spake to her heart, and made her no 
longer a stranger : 

And her ear was pleased with the Thee and Thou of 
the Quakers, 

For it recalled the past, the old Acadian country, 

Where all men were equal, and all were brothers and 
sisters. 

So, when the fruitless search, the disappointed en- 
deavor, 

Ended, to recommence no more upon earth, uncom- 
plaining, 

Thither, as leaves to the light, were turned her 
thoughts and her footsteps. 

As from a mountain's top the rainy mists of the 

morning 1270 

Roll away, and afar we behold the landscape below 
us, 

6. Under what circumstances lias Rene Leblanc been men- 
tioned before 1 



EVANGELINE 107 

Sun-illumined, with shining rivers and cities and 

hamlets, 
So fell the mists from her mind, and she saw the 

world far below her, 
Dark no longer, but all illumined with love ; and the 

pathway 
Which she had climbed so far, lying smooth and fair 

in the distance. 
Gabriel was not forgotten. Within her heart was 

his image, 
Clothed in the beauty of love and youth, as last she 

beheld him, 
Only more beautiful made by his deathlike silence 

and absence. 
Into her thoughts of him time entered not, for it was 

not. 
Over him years had no power ; he was not changed, 

but transfigured ; 1280 

He had become to her heart as one who is dead, and 

not absent ; 
Patience and abnegation of self, and devotion to 

others, 
This was the lesson a life of trial and sorrow had 

taught her. 
So was her love diffused, but, like to some odorous 

spices, 
Suffered no waste nor loss, though filling the air with 

aroma. 7 

7. Connect this passage with lines 730-737. 



108 EVANGELINE 

Other hope had she none, nor wish in life, but to 
follow 

Meekly, with reverent steps, the sacred feet of her 
Saviour. 

Thus many years she lived as a Sister of Mercy ; fre- 
quenting 

Lonely and wretched roofs in the crowded lanes of 
the city, 

Where distress and want concealed themselves from 

the sunlight, 1290 

Where disease and sorrow in garrets languished neg- 
lected. 

Night after night when the world was asleep, as the 
watchman repeated 

Loud, through the gusty streets, that all was well in 
the city, 8 

High at some lonely window he saw the light of her 
taper. 

Day after day, in the gray of the dawn, as slow 
through the suburbs 

Plodded the German farmer, with flowers and fruits 
for the market, 

Met he that meek, pale face, returning home from its 
watchings. 

Then it came to pass that a pestilence 9 fell on the city. 
Presaged by wondrous signs, and mostly by flocks of 
wild pigeons, 

8. Describe the old custom to which reference is made here. 

9. Tlie great yellow fever epidemic which afflicted Philadelphia 
in July, 1793. 



EVANGELINE 109 

Darkening the sun in their flight, with naught in 

their craws but an acorn. 1300 

And, as the tides of the sea arise in the month of 

September, 
Flooding some silver stream, till it spread to a lake 

in a meadow, 
So death flooded life, and o'erflowing its natural 

margin, 
Spread to a brackish lake, the silver stream of exist- 
ence. 
Wealth had no power to bribe, nor beauty to charm, 

the oppressor ; 
But all perished alike beneath the scourge of his 

anger — 10 
Only, alas ! the poor, who had neither friends nor 

attendants, 
Crept away to die in the almshouse, home of the 

homeless ; 
Then in the suburbs it stood, in the midst of meadows 

and woodlands — 
Now the city surrounds it ; but still with its gateway 

and wicket 13]0 

Meek, in the midst of splendor, its humble walls seem 

to echo 
Softly the words of the Lord — " The poor ye always 

have with you." 
Thither, by night and by day, came the Sister of 

Mercy. The dying 

10. Paraphrase lines 1311-1316. 



110 EVANGELINE 

Looked up into her face, and thought, indeed, to be- 
hold there 

Gleams of celestial light encircle her forehead with 
splendor, 

Such as the artist paints o'er the brows of saints and 
apostles, 

Or such as hangs by night o'er a city seen at a dis- 
tance. 

Unto their eyes it seemed the lamps of the city celes- 
tial, 

Into whose shining gates ere long their spirits would 
enter. 

Thus, on a Sabbath morn, through the streets, de- 
serted and silent, 1320 

Wending her quiet way, she entered the door of the 
almshouse. 

Sweet on the summer air was the odor of flowers in 
the garden ; 

And she paused on her way to gather the fairest 
among them, 

That the dying once more might rejoice in their fra- 
grance and beauty. 

Then, as she mounted the stairs to the corridors, 
cooled by the east wind, 

Distant and soft on her ear fell the chimes from the 
belfry of Christ Church, 11 

11. The church in which Benjamin Franklin is buried. 



EVANGELINE 111 

While, intermingled with these, across the meadows 

were wafted 
Sounds of psalms, that were sung by the Swedes in 

their church at Wicaco. 12 
Soft as descending wings fell the calm of the hour on 

her spirit ; 
Something within her said — " At length thy trials 

are ended ; " 13 3° 

And, with a light in her looks, she entered the cham- 
bers of sickness. 
Noiselessly moved about the assiduous, careful at- 
tendants, 
Moistening the feverish lip, and the aching brow, 

and in silence 
Closing the sightless eyes of the dead, and concealing 

their faces, 
Where on their pallets they lay, like drifts of snow by 

the roadside. 
Many a languid head, upraised as Evangeline entered, 
Turned on its pillow of pain to gaze while she passed, 

for her presence 
Fell on their hearts like a ray of the sun on the walls 

of a prison. 
And, as she looked around, she saw how Death, the 

consoler, 
Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it 

forever. 1340 

12. Now a suburb of Philadelphia. 



112 EVANGELINE • 

Many familiar forms had disappeared in the night- 
time ; 
Vacant their places were, or filled already by 

strangers. 
Suddenly, as if arrested by fear or a feeling of 

wonder, 
Still she stood, with her colorless lips apart, while a 

shudder 
Ran through her frame, and, forgotten, the flowerets 

dropped from her fingers, 
And from her eyes and cheeks the light and bloom of 

the morning. 
Then there escaped from her lips a cry of such ter- 
rible anguish, 
That the dying heard it, and started up from their 

pillow T s. 
On the pallet before her was stretched the form of an 

old man. 
Long, and thin, and gray were the locks that shaded 

his temples ; 1350 

But, as he lay in the morning light, his face for a 

moment 
Seemed to assume once more the forms of its earlier 

manhood ; 
So are wont to be changed the faces of those who are 

dying. 
Hot and red on his lips still burned the flush of the 

fever, 



• EVANGELINE 113 

As if life, like the Hebrew, with blood had besprinkled 

its portals, 
That the Angel of Death might see the sign, and pass 

over, 13 
Motionless, senseless, dying, he lay, and his spirit 

exhausted 
Seemed to be sinking down to infinite depths in the 

darkness, 
Darkness of slumber and death, forever sinking and 

sinking. 
Then through those realms of shade, in multiplied 

reverberations, 1360 

Heard he that cry of pain, and through the hush that 

succeeded 
Whispered a gentle voice, in accents tender and saint- 
like, 
"Gabriel! O my beloved!" and died away into 

silence. 
Then he beheld, in a dream, once more the home of 

his childhood ; 
Green Acadian meadows, with sylvan rivers among 

them, 
Village, and mountain, and woodlands ; and, walk- 
ing under their shadow, 
As in the days of her youth, Evangeline rose in his 

vision. 
Tears came into his eyes ; and as slowly he lifted his 

eyelids, 

13. Read the story from Exodus xii. 



114 EVANGELINE 

Vanished the vision away, but Evangeline knelt by 
his bedside. 

Vainly he strove to whisper her name, for the accents 

unuttered 1370 

Died on his lips, and their motion revealed what his 
tongue would have spoken. 

Vainly he strove to rise ; and Evangeline, kneeling 
beside him, 

Kissed his dying lips, and laid his head on her bosom 

Sweet was the light of his eyes ; but it suddenly sank 
into darkness, 

As when a lamp is blown out by a gust of wind at a 
casement. 

All was ended now, the hope, and the fear, and the 
sorrow, 

All the aching of heart, the restless, unsatisfied long- 
ing, 

All the dull, deep pain, and constant anguish of pa- 
tience ! 

And, as she pressed once more the lifeless head to her 
bosom, 

Meekly she bowed her own, and murmured, " Father, 

I thank thee ! " 1380 

Still stands the forest primeval; 14 but far away from 

its shadow, 
Side by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are 

sleeping. 

14. Compare with the Prologue. 



E VAN GE LINE 115 

Under the humble walls of the little Catholic church- 
yard, 

In the heart of the city, they lie, unknown and un- 
noticed ; 

Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside 
them, 

Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at 
rest and forever, 

Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer 
are busy, 

Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased 
from their labors, 

Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed 
their journey ! 15 

Still stands the forest primeval ; but under the shade 

of its branches 1390 

Dwells another race, with other customs and lan- 
guage. 

Only along the shore of the mournful and misty At- 
lantic 

Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from 
exile 

Wandered back to their native land to die in its 
bosom ; 

In the fisherman's cot the wheel and the loom are 
still busy ; 

Maidens still wear their Norman caps and their kir- 
tles of homespun, 

15. What effect is produced hy the repetition of these lines! 



116 EVANGELINE 

And by the evening lire repeat Evangeline's story, 16 
While from its rocky caverns the deep-voiced, neigh- 
boring ocean 
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail 

of the forest. l ™ 



16. English-speaking settlers occupy Grand-Pre now, and there are 
no descendants of the French- Acadians in the valley; but a few are 
living in humble circumstances on the other coast, not far from 
Yarmouth. 



OUTLINE STUDY 

NO. 23 

EVANGELINE 
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882) 



**. 



A. Preparatory Work. — History of the Poem ; His- 
torical Foundation of the Narrative ; Acadia. 

B. First Reading. — The Narrative of the Poem; 
Time and Place of Action of the Story. 

C. Second Reading. — Characters of the Narrative ; 
Details of the Poem. 

D. Third Reading. — Literary Analysis; Material 
used in the Composition of Evangeline. 

E. Supplementary Work. — Remarks on the Poem; 
Theme Subjects ; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 



4 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

A. PREPARATORY WORK 

HISTORY OF THE POEM; HISTORI- 
CAL FOUNDATION OF THE 
NARRATIVE; ACADIA- 

I. History of the Poem 

Note 1. In Field's Yesterdays With Authors, we find the following 
statement concerning the poem Evangeline : " Hawthorne dined 
one day with Longfellow, and brought with him a friend from 
Salem. After dinner the friend said : ' I have been trying to 
persuade Hawthorne to write a story based upon a legend of 
Acadie, and still current there ; a legend of a girl who, in the 
dispersion of the Acadians, was separated from her lover, and 
passed her life in waiting and seeking for him, and only found 
him, dying in a hospital, when both were old.' " 

Longfellow wondered that this legend did not strike the 
fancy of Hawthorne, and said to him: "If you have really 
made up your mind not to use it for a story, will you give it to 
me for a poem ? " To this Hawthorne assented, and promised 
not to treat the subject in prose until Longfellow had seen what 
he could do with it in verse. 

Critics in England and America had long been demanding 
a poem which should be thoroughly American in subject and 
scenery, and this legend seemed to Longfellow to answer the 
demand. The poem was received with immediate and general 
enthusiasm. 

II. Historical Foundation of the Narrative 

Note 2. In 1604 the French settled in Acadia (now Nova Scotia), 
choosing for the settlement Port Royal, now Annapolis, because 
of its vicinity to the countries abounding in furs, of which the 
exclusive trade had been given to the new settlers. The colony 
was yet in its infancy when the settlement, which has since 
become so famous under the name New England, was established 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 



in its neighborhood. The rapid success of the plantations in 
this new colony did not at first arouse the jealousy of the French 
in Acadia ; but when competition in the fur trade was threat- 
ened, the French endeavored to secure to themselves the monopoly 
of it, and were unfortunate enough to succeed. 

On their arrival at Acadia, the French had found the 
peninsula, as well as the forests of the neighboring continent, 
peopled with small tribes of Indians, who were disposed to be 
very friendly. The French missionaries, easily insinuating 
themselves among these, had not only taught the Indians their 
religion, but had, also, inspired them with that hatred which 
the French entertained for the English name. Therefore, the 
Indians not only refused to make any kind of exchange with the 
English, but frequently attacked and plundered their settlements. 
When the English saw that all efforts either to reconcile the 
savages or to destroy them were ineffectual, they fell upon 
Acadia, which they looked upon with reason as the sole cause 
of their difficulties. 

After a series of struggles, Acadia was ceded to Great 
Britain in 1713. The inhabitants were induced to swear alle- 
giance to their new masters upon the sole condition that they 
should be exempt from bearing arms against either the French 
or the Indians in defense of the province. Before the termina- 
tion of the French and Indian War, the Acadians were accused 
of having forfeited their neutrality by supplying intelligence, pro- 
visions, and quarters to the French and Indians at Beau Sejour. 
The punishment for this crime was delayed until the harvests 
were gathered in, that the British army might seize the grain. 
The villagers were then called, on a certain day, into the church, 
to hear the proclamation of the king. The king declared that 
all lands, houses, herds, crops, and other possessions, except 
money and household goods, were forfeited to the crown ; and 
stated that the people themselves were to be deported to distant 
colonies. Ships and soldiers were at hand to execute these 
orders. The Acadians were hurried on shipboard with the most 
cruel confusion, and lifelong separations of child from parent, 
husband from wife, and lover from lover, followed. An inci- 
dent of the last kind furnishes the story of Evangeline. 



III. Acadia 



1. History. — Colonized by France, 1604 ; ceded to 
Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713 ; 
Acadians deported by the British, 1755. 



6 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

2. Extent in 1755. — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 
Maine, east of the Penobscot. 

3. Meaning of the Name. — In the earliest records Acadie 
is called Cadie ; afterwards it was called Acadia, 
Accadia, or L'Acadie. 

The name is probably a French adaptation of a word com- 
mon among the Micmac Indians, signifying place or region. 
The French turned this Indian term into Cadie or Acadie ; the 
English, into ^jioddy, in which form it remains when applied 
to the Quoddy Indians, and in the compound Passamaquoddy, 
or Pollock Ground. — Riverside Edition of Longfellow's Poems. 

4. Name Changed to Nova Scotia (New Scotland) 1621. 

B. FIRST READING 

THE NARRATIVE OF THE POEM; 

TIME AND PLACE OF THE 

ACTION OF THE STORY 



I. The Narrative of the Poem 

1. Outline of the Narrative. 

a. Introduction. — Description of the forest ; hint 
as to the character of the story ; place of action 
of the story ; two aspects of Grand Pre ; class 
of readers to whom the poem will appeal; char- 
acterization of the poem ; characterization of 
Acadie. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 



b. Part I. Acadie, Home of the Happy. 

(1.) Canto 1 . — Grand Pre and its Inhab- 
itants. 

(2.) Canto 2. — By Benedict's Fire. 

(3.) Canto 3. — The Ceremony of Be- 
trothal. 

(4.) Canto 4. — The Tragic Ending of the 
Betrothal Feast. 

(5.) Canto 5 . — At the Gaspereau's Mouth. 

c. Part II. Evangeline's Quest. 

(1.) Canto 1. — Prolonged Separation of 
the Lovers. 

(2.) Canto 2. — Down the Mississippi. 

(3.) Canto 3. — The Home of Basil the 
Herdsman. 

(4.) Canto 4. — The Hopeless Quest. 

(5.) Canto 5. — The Quest Ended. 

d. Conclusion. — Description of Evangeline's 
grave ; characterization of those who pass by it ; 
description of the Acadia of to-day ; popularity 
of the story. 

Suggestion 1. The pupils are expected to relate, from memory, the 
circumstances which justify each of the above headings. The 
headings of introduction and conclusion should be accurately 
quoted. 

Note 3. The climax of the story is reached in the scene which may 
be entitled " Under the Wachita Willows." 



8 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

2. Points to be especially noted. 

a. The historical setting of the story. 

Suggestion 2. How is the historical situation brought to the reader's 
notice ? 

(1.) The English ships in the bay. 

(2.) The Acadian men ordered to assemble 
in the church to hear the king's 
mandate. 

(3.) Deprived of their arms. 

(4.) The king's proclamation. 

(5.) The farmers imprisoned in the church ; 
duration of imprisonment. 

(6.) Deportation of the Acadians ; tragic 
separations. 

(7.) The fate of the exiled Acadians. 

Note 4. The Acadians were distributed among different English 
colonies, to prevent the possibility of their joining with the 
French against the English. Some settled on the border between 
Canada and the United States, and others established themselves 
in Louisiana, on both sides of the Mississippi, from the Gulf 
Coast to Baton Rouge. The banks of the river were long 
called " the Acadian coast." 

(a.) "Many already have fled to the forest." 

Note 5. These sought the protection of their Indian allies, — the 
Maliceet Tribe in New Brunswick, and the Quoddy Tribe in 
Maine, whom the Acadians had converted to Christianity and 
partially civilized. Their descendants are still to be found 
among those Indians and among the French settlers along the 
upper St. John in northern Maine, in the district known as 
Madawaska. 

Suggestion 3. Give accurate quotations for each of the headings 
under topic " a." 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 



(8.) Beau Sejour, Port Royal, Louisberg. 

Note 6. Louisberg in Cape Breton was taken by the English in 
1745, and Port Royal (now Annapolis) in 1710. Beau Sejour 
was a fort built by the Canadian French on the frontier of Acadia 
(at the head of Chegnecto Bay, near Sackville, N. B.), which 
had been taken by the English in July of the same year in which 
the deportation of the Acadians took place. 

b. Grand Pre. 

(1.) Its situation. 

(2.) Description of the village and the 
surrounding country. 

(3.) Its inhabitants. 

(a.) Their descent ; their character. 
(b.) Condition of society in Grand 
Pre. 

(4.) Meaning of the name Grand Pre. 
Suggestion 4. Verify each heading by accurate quotation. 

3. Summary of the stpry. 

Suggestion 5. Tell the story in the briefest possible manner. 

II. Time of the Action of the Narrative 

1. Part I. — September, 1755. 

2. Part II.— 

a. Opens in May, 1765. 

Note 7. In 1765, about six hundred and fifty Acadians from New 
Brunswick, Northern Maine, and Canada arrived at New 
Orleans, attracted by the French population there. They were 
sent to form settlements in Attakapas and Opelousas. 

b. Ends in 1793, the year of the yellow fever pes- 

tilence in Philadelphia. 



10 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

III. Place of Action of the Story 

1. Part I. — Acadia. 

Note 8. Hoiv is Acadia characterized by Longfello-zv ? 

2. Part II. — 

a. Evangeline's journey. 
Suggestion 6. Verify the following by accurate quotation. 

( 1.) From the Great Lakes down the 
Ohio. 

(a.) Past the shores of Ohio and of 
Indiana. 

(2.) Down the Mississippi. 

(a.) Through southern Louisiana, 
toward the Delta. 

(b.) Into the Bayou of Plaquemine. 

( 3.) Down the Atchafalaya River, thread- 
ing the numerous lakes and bayous. 

(a.) Stop to rest on the shores of 
Lake Wachita (one of the 
Atchafalaya Lakes.) 

(b.) Making their way westward 
through the lakes, they reach 
the Bayou Teche. 

( 4.) Stop at St. Martins. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 11 

( 5.) Retracing their steps through the 
Atchafalaya Bayous, Basil, Evange- 
line, and Father Felicien enter the 
Red River and sail northwest, leav- 
ing the raft at Natchitoches {pos- 
sibly). Then, continuing the 
journey by land, they stop at 
Adayes. 

Note 9. The remains of the ancient town of Adayes are a few miles 
west of Natchitoches, and twenty-five miles from the Texan 
frontier. 



( 6.) From Adayes to the base of the 
Ozark Mountains. 

(7.) Evangeline tarries at the mission {in 
Indian Territory, probably). 

(8.) Journeys northeast to the Michigan 
forests. 

(9.) Spends several years in New York 
and Pennsylvania. 

(10.) Makes her home at last in Phila- 
delphia. 

Suggestion?. In this connection, identify the following : (1.) The 
Acadian Coast {See Note 4). (2.) The Father of Waters. 
(3.) That delightful land which is washed by the Delaware's 
waters. (4.) The Beautiful River. (5.) Region where reigns 
perpetual summer. 



12 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

C. SECOND READING 

CHARACTERS OF THE NARRATIVE; 
DETAILS OF THE POEM 

1. Evangeline. 

a. The little Acadian maiden. 

(1.) Give quotations covering the following 
points : Circumstances under which 
she is first mentioned ; personal ap- 
pearance ; popularity in the vil- 
lage ; the lover ; her position in the 
household. 

(2.) Pen pictures of Evangeline. 

(a.) Evangeline carrying ale to the 

reapers. 
(b.) Evangeline on her way to 

church. 
(c.) Evangeline and Gabriel in the 

window. 
(d.) Evangeline at the Bethrothal 

Feast. 
(e. ) Evangeline at her father's door 

in the sunset. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 13 

(/. ) Evangeline cheering the women. 

(g.) Evangeline at the door of the 
church. 

(h.) Evangeline by the side of her 
dying father. 

Suggestion 8. Enumerate all the details which enter into the com- 
position of each picture. 

Note 10. Evangeline is the typical Acadian peasant girl, — pretty, 
modest, and graceful. 

b. The woman in search of her lover. 

(1.) Mode of life after the expatriation. 

( 2 . ) Pen Pictures of Evangeline from 
Part II. 

(a.) Sat by some nameless grave. 

(b.) Under the Wachita Willows. 

(c. ) In the garden of Basil the 
herdsman. 

(d.) Evangeline and the Indian 
woman. 

(e.) Evangeline by the bedside of 
Gabriel. 

2. Benedict Bellefontaine. 

a. Cite quotations covering the following points : 
Characterization o f ; personal appearance ; 
attitude toward h i s fellows ; character as 
revealed in Part I, Canto 2 ; appearance after 
the imprisonment ; death. 



14 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

3. Basil Lajeunesse. 

a. Basil the Blacksmith . 

(1.) Give quotations covering the follow- 
ing points : Characterization ; char- 
acter as revealed in I, 2 ; personal 
appearance ; his imprecation in the 
church. 

b. Basil the Herdsman. 

(1.) Personal appearance. 

4. Gabriel Lajeunesse. 

a. Personal appearance ; character before and after 
the deportation. 

5. Father Felician. 

a. Position in the village ; influence over his 
people ; length of his sojourn among the 
Acadians ; on the night before the deportation ; 
association with Evangeline ; death. 

6. Rene Leblanc. 

a. Position in the village ; personal appearance ; 
family ; war record ; character. 

II. Details of the Poem 
1. Illustrations to accompany the text. 

a. The old priest with his little troop of village 
dames and children. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 15 

b. The bethrothed lovers in the old-fashioned 

homestead. 

c. The merry old fiddler. 

d. The stout herdsman of the prairie. 

e. Evangeline turning for a last look at the desolate 

Grand Pre. 

/. The game of checkers. 

g. "Without, in the churchyard, waited the 
women." 

h. "The silent and mournful procession." 

Suggestion 9. Make a complete list of all scenes that might be illus- 
trated in this manner. 

2. Manners and customs of the Acadian peasants. 

a. Houses ; dress ; position of parish priest ; occupa- 

tion of the women ; Angelus ; religion ; 
church customs (in this connection give the 
meaning and significance of hyssop, missal, 
beads, plain-song) ; boxes for the poor ; wells ; 
amusements ; oxen and their trappings ; dishes ; 
food and drink ; carols ; curfew ; ceremonies 
of betrothal, etc. 

b. Old sayings ; superstitions, etc. 

(1.) Wonderous stone of the swallow. 

Note 11. The stone described in the poem when found in the swal- 
low's nest, would perform miraculous cures. 



16 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

(2.) Sunshine of St. Eulalie ; signs of a 
hard winter ; oxen on Christmas eve ; 
Loup Garou ; Letiche ; fever cured 
by a spider ; four-leaved clover ; find- 
ing a horseshoe ; to braid St. Cath- 
erine's tresses. 

Suggestion 10. Use "b" for the subject of a carefully written 
composition. 

3. Allusions to explain. 

Suggestion 11. Give the context for each. 

a. The story of the Statue of Justice. 

Note 12. Under 'what circumstances does this story bring comfort 
to E-vangeline ? 

b. The Penitent Peter. 

c. The Plane Tree adorned by the Persian with 

jewels. 

Note 13. In Herodotus, we read, Xerxes, going by this way, met 
with a plane tree, which, on account of its beauty, he presented 
with golden ornaments ; and having committed it to the care of 
one of the immortals, on the next day he arrived at Sardis, the 
capital of the Lydians. 

d. Fata Morgana. 

e. The battlefields of the army. 
/. Without bell or book. 

g. Legend of the red and the crooked ears of corn. 

Note 14. The corn-husking season was one of great hilarity, and 
many young people met together at social huskings. On such 
occasions if a girl finds a red ear of corn she must present it to 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 17 



the lad she likes best. If, however, the ear is crooked, it is 
considered the image of an old man thief, and the whole com- 
pany sings : — 

" Crooked ear, crooked ear, 
Walker at night ; 
Stop, little old man, 
And take not to flight. 

Crooked ear, crooked ear, 

Stand up strong ; 
Little old crooked man, 

I'll give you a song." 

" The Poetry of Indians." — Harper's Magazine. 



h. Druids and the "mystic mistletoe." 
4. Paraphrase, and give the context. 

a. The craft of the smith. 

b. The sign of the Scorpion enters. 

c. Waifs of the tide. 

d. Crown us with asphodel flowers that ar^ wet 

with the dew of Nepenthe. 

e. Its household gods into exile. 
/. Ambrosial meadows. 

g. Scattered tribes of Ishmael's children. 



18 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 



D. THIRD READING 



LITERARY ANALYSIS; MATERIAL 
USED IN THE COMPOSITION 
OF EVANGELINE 



V 



I. Literary Analysis 

1. Characteristics of the poem. 

Note 15. The characteristics enumerated below are those which are 
obvious to the young and sympathetic reader. 

a. Full of tranquil scenes of humble content. 

(Enumerate.) 

b. Faultless finish. 

c. Great simplicity of diction. 

d* Moral tone, pure and elevated. 

e. Appeals to the affection and sympathy of the 
reader. 

/. Full o f homely details and natural feelings, 
graced with fanciful images. 

g. The grace and melody of the verse leave little 
room for criticism. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 19 

h. The numerous descriptive passages are con- 
spicuously fine. 

(1.) Re-read the following: Benedict's 
house ; Basil's forge ; twilight scenes 
in Acadia ; return of the laborers ; 
the burning village ; the stampede 
of the herds; death and burial of 
Benedict ; the garden of Basil the 
herdsman ; Ozark Mountains in the 
moonlight ; vespers at the mission ; 
description of the Mississippi ; the 
mocking bird's song; the Lakes of 
the Atchafalaya ; the deserts ; sun- 
s e t in Grand Pre ; under the 
Wachita willows. 

Note 16. Note Longfellow's characterization of Autumn. Note the 
different epithets and images used in the description of the ocean. 
Note the contrasts of the poem, particularly the contrast in the 
sounds of Parts I and II. 

/'. The most conspicuous feature of the poem is its 
wealth of imagery. 

(1.) Personifications: Pines; the 
ocean ; forest ; sea ; mists of 
looms ; weather cock ; trees ; 
the sun ; labor ; oaks. 

Suggestion 12. Quote the line or lines in which each is personified. 

(2.) Similes and metaphors. 

Suggestion 13. Complete each. Designate those which seem to 
you faulty, and state the reason for your decision. 



20 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

a. The roe when he hears ; rivers that water the ; 
leaves when the mighty ; clouds of incense ; 
oak that is covered ; the berry that grows ; the 
breath of kine that ; like the ceasing of 
exquisite music ; like a fiery snake coiled ; 
nuns going into ; as the swoop of an eagle ; 
as Jacob of old ; like foes in a ; as shields of 
armies; like a laboring oar that; as the 
vapors freeze; the forget-me-nots of; like the 
tremulous tides; as out of Abraham's tent; 
like Elijah ; like the prophet ; like unto ship- 
wrecked Paul; the face of a clock from 
which; like flakes of snow when the ; like the 
ladder of Jacob ; like a silent Carthusian ; 
the thoughts of God in the heavens; like a 
dead leaf over ; like the impeccable soul of a 
chieftain ; like the great chords of a harp ; as 
if life like the Hebrew ; as when a lamp is 
blown out. 

Note 17. The Biblical images of Evangeline have been severely- 
censured ; but they may be justified on the ground that they 
accord with the atmosphere of the poem. Such images would 
be appropriate in a poem whose subject is the " pious Acadian 
peasants." 

a. Its meter : Hexameter. 

Note 18. The Hexameter consists of two feet or measures of two 
or three syllables each. The last of these feet must consist of two 
syllables ; and the last but one of three syllables. 

(1.) The cadence of the poem is very 
appropriate to that life-long melan- 
choly search, — never satisfied, never 
ending. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 21 

(2.) "The hexameter has been often 
criticised, but I do not believe any 
other measure could have told that 
lovely story with such effect as we 
feel when carried along the tranquil 
current of these brimming, slow- 
moving, soul-satisfying lines. Im- 
agine for one moment a story like 
this minced into octosyllables. The 
poet knows better than his critics 
the length of step which best befits 
his muse." — 0. W. Holmes. 

Suggestion 14. Criticise II, 3 : 1-3 ; II, 1 : 7; Hoof-beats of fate; 
%oar of the grim alligator ; Shards of existence. 

2. Class of poetry to which Evangeline belongs. — Nar- 

rative poem, idyllic in character. 

3. Germ of the poem. — The tradition of Evangeline 

and Gabriel. 

4. Subject of the poem.— The deportation of the Aca- 

dians. 

5. Characterization of Evangeline. 

Note 19. Observe Longfellow's own characterization of his poem. 

6. Criticism of Evangeline. — "Of the longer poems of 

Longfellow, I should not hesitate to select Evan- 
geline as the masterpiece. From the first line 
of the poem, from its first words, we read as we 
would float down a broad and placid river, mur- 
muring softly against its banks, heaven over it, 
and the glory of the unspoiled wilderness all 
around." — 0. W . Holmes. 



22 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

E. SUPPLEMENTARY WORK 

REMARKS ON THE POEM; 
THEME SUBJECTS; HENRY 
WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 

I. Remarks on Evangeline 

1. Its place among the author's works. 

Note 20. Evangeline is the best loved of Longfellow's major poems. 

2. Material used in its composition. 

a. In the measure and character of his poem, 

Longfellow follows a German model, Her- 
mann and Dorothea, by Gcethe. 

b. His description of the Acadians is from the 

Abbe RaynaPs account of the French settlers. 

Note 21. The historical basis of the Hermann and Dorothea is the 
expulsion of the Protestants from his territory by the Archbishop 
of Salzburg. Dorothea is exiled, and leads a wandering and 
unsettled life, until she finally marries Hermann. 

3. Names considered by Longfellow as a title for his 

poem : Gabrielle, Celestine, Evangeline. 

II. Theme Subjects 

1. Fear that Reigns with the Tyrant. 

2. Envy the Vice of Republics. 

3. Might is the Right of the Strongest. 

4. Story of the Statue of Justice. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 23 

5. Part Played by the Indian Woman in the Narrative. 

6. Retell the Story, Giving it a Happy Ending. 

7. Lesson Taught by the Compass Flower. 

8. Patient Endurance is Godlike. 

9. Evangeline, the Sister of Mercy. 

10. Affection Never was Wasted. 

11. Evangeline's Journey. 

12. Under the Wachita Willows. 

13. Imaginary Story of Gabriel's Search for Evangeline. 

14. Contrast of the Ocean and the Mississippi in the 

Poem. 

15. Contrast Between Benedict's Home and that of 
. Basil the Herdsman. 

16. Different Aspects of Grand Pre. 

17. Grand Pre to-day. 

18. Was there any Justification for the Deportation of 

the Acadians ? 

19. Longfellow's Attitude Toward the Deportation ; 

Devices Used by Longfellow to arouse the Read- 
er's Sympathy for the Acadians. 

20. Nature Pictures in the Similes and Metaphors. 

III. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

1. Significant Events in His Career. 

2. Classification of His Works. 

3. Longfellow's Famous Contemporaries. 



24 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 

i. Relate the entire story of the poem. Enumerate 
those incidents, scenes, and allusions of the poem which 
are historical. Give the date of the event which is the 
foundation of the poem. How long a period does the 
action of the narrative cover ? 

2. State the significance of the "Prologue" of the 
poem. Describe the pictures which the first four lines 
bring before the reader. 

3. Write a detailed description of the village of 
Grand Pre and its environs. What is the meaning of 
the name? Write a character sketch of the villagers 
in general. Of what nationality were they? 

4. Name the actors of the story in the order of their 
appearance. Identify each. State the circumstances 
under which each first appears upon the scene and de- 
scribe the condition of each at the end of the narrative. 

5. Describe in full an imaginary visit to the Grand 
Pre of the poem, bringing into your description every 
local custom, however trivial, mentioned in Cantos 1-3 
of Part I. 

6. Enumerate those scenes of the poem in which 
Evangeline appears as the central figure. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 25 

7. Reproduce in your own words Canto 4 of Part I. 
Had the King oE England any justification for his 
treatment of the Acadians? What is the poet's opinion 
of the deed? Quote two lines from Part II which 
characterize this event. 

8. Describe in detail the word picture of the last 
stanza of Part I. What impression does it produce 
upon you? 

9. Select ten similes or metaphors from Part I which 
seem to you to be particularly expressive, and state 
in each case the basis of resemblance. Select two 
which seem to you to be faulty and inadequate. What 
other figures of speech do you find in Part I ? 

10. After the deportation, where did the Acadians 
settle? Trace the journey of Evangeline from Canada 
to the home of Basil the Herdsman. Designate the 
pronunciation of all the geographical names occurring 
in this description of the journey. 

11. What most tragic incident occurs in Part II, 
Canto 1 of our poem? What part does the Indian 
woman play in the story? 

12. Draw carefully the contrast between the out-door 
scene described in Canto 2, Part I, and that described 
in Canto 3, Part II. Draw the contrast between Basil 
the Blacksmith and Basil the Herdsman. Enumerate 
all the details that enter into the composition of the 
word picture of Canto 4, stanza 1, Part II. 

13. What impression does stanza 1 of the " Epilogue" 
of the poem make upon you? What rhetorical figure 



26 OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 

is used with great effect in this stanza? Compare the 
" Epilogue" with the "Prologue." 

14. Enumerate those characteristics of Evangeline 
which, in your judgment, account for the fact that it is 
one of the most widely read poems in the language. 

15. Make a list of the most conspicuous allusions in 
the poem and tell the story which justifies the use of 
each as an illustration. 

16. Quote from the "Prologue " the line which states 
the theme or motif of our poem. Point out a particu- 
larly expressive and beautiful line in Canto 2, stanza 1, 
Part I. 

17. Explain the epithets in the following expressions : 
Gossiping" looms, noisy weathercocks, populous nests, 
drowsy air, briny hay, diligent shzittle, mendicant 
crows. Which of them personify the noun? 

18. Define the following words and state the connec- 
tion in which each is used : kirtle, missal, hyssop, 
penthouse, wains, seraglio, plain-song, elbow-chair, 
dresser, hob-nailed, glebe, iitk-horn. Which one of 
these words seems not to belong in the list ? Why ? 

19. Give the meaning of the following lines and give 
the context for each : Rattled and sang of mutation; 
The retreating sun the sign of the Scorpion enters; 
Regent of the flocks was he when the shepherd slept ; 
The bell of the A?tgehis sounded ; Without bell or 
book ; The shards and thorns of existence; Wet with 
the dews of Nepenthe. 

20. Rewrite the story of Evangeline, making her 
quest successful. 



OUTLINE STUDY XXIII, EVANGELINE 27 

21. Make a list of twenty illustrations for the poem 
Describe two of the pictures. 

22. Describe an imaginary visit to the " Land of 
Evangeline" as it exists to-day. 

23. What use does Longfellow make of the following 
traditions in his poem : The Statue of Justice, The Tale 
of the Mowis, The Legend of the Compass- flower? 

24. Compare Evangeline with the last poem read 
by you (1) as to the interest of the story ; (2) as to the 
impression made by the beauty of the verse. 

25. To what class of poetry does Evangeline be- 
long? Quote some of the criticisms which you have 
learned regarding the literary merits of Evangeline. 
Enumerate those literary characteristics which are 
apparent to you. Why is Evangeline called an 
"Idyll"? Describe the meter of the poem. 



